


Home Is Where The Heart Is.

by jaebirdbluetheawesome (GreyAreaSystem)



Series: Jae Does Maribat [6]
Category: Batman - All Media Types, Maribat - Fandom, Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: F/F, F/M, Ivan appreciation because I said so, Minor Ivan Bruel/Mylène Haprèle, The whole class has been redeemed but like forever ago, Tom and Sabine pull a Bruce Wayne and adopt so many kids
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-09-05
Updated: 2021-02-11
Packaged: 2021-03-06 19:19:53
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 18
Words: 63,086
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26304040
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/GreyAreaSystem/pseuds/jaebirdbluetheawesome
Summary: Marinette had a favorite english phrase: Home is where the heart is. And after the strangest sleepover of their lives, one Marinette Dupain-Cheng, Kagami Tsurugi, and Chloe Bourgeois make a unanimous decision: Paris just doesn’t feel like home anymore.Featuring: Dumbass!Marinette and SocialAnxiety!Damian.Alternatively: Two idiots fall in love after having a deep conversation and think they’re just platonic super best friends until it hits them like a sack of bricks one day they’ve fallen in love but are CONVINCED the other just sees them as a best friend so they pine after each other, oblivious to the others feelings, miserable as all hell.Admit it, that second one was the one you wanted to know ;)
Relationships: Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Ladybug/Damian Wayne
Series: Jae Does Maribat [6]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1877605
Comments: 364
Kudos: 792





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Hey, fair warning, we're not gonna see Gotham until like chapter four.  
> Just saying.

Marinette was the kind of person to drastically overthink things to dangerous levels. She had almost driven herself to insanity on a near daily basis. She needed someone to tell all of her thoughts to, so they in turn could take the liberty of telling her she sounded stupid and to stop thinking about it. She needed help.

“You need someone to play mediator with your thoughts, Marinette.” Tikki advised her, after she had spent about three hours contemplating if she should quit being Ladybug or not. She had made a whole court case for and against herself, and everything. “Someone to tell you when you are thinking somethig stupid.”

“Like a therapist.” Marinette mumbled. 

“Exactly.”

“But Tikki, that would require me sharing my identity, and I simply cannot do that.” She sighed. 

“You can help yourself by any means necessary if you believe it would have a larger impact on the greater good than a small one.” Tikki assured her. “Plus, you are the guardian now. The guardian gets to make the rules.” Marinette started to ponder this idea. “I can already hear you overthinking this.” Tikki grumbled.

“Tikki, I don’t think this is such a good idea.”

“Let me put it this way.” Tikki made the exact face of the _*inhales* Boiii_ meme, and Marinette knew she wasn’t winning this. “It is better for you to try and get help from one person you trust and risk one person knowing if it means you getting better. You being healthy is far more important than risking everyone else’s safety here in Paris.” She finished, and Marinette knew she was right. She had to do this.

“But you never know which of these adults might have been working for Hawkmoth, so I can’t go to an actual therapist.” She mused.

“So pick someone you trust. Someone close to you.”

“Like one of my classmates.” She pulled up a list of all of the kids in her class, and jumped into making a pros and cons list. Immediately crossed off the list were Alya, Chloe, Lila and Sabrina.

“I’m sure Adrien would love to help you find some peace of mind.” Tikki tried.

“Tikki, that is literally the worst idea.” He got crossed off the list as well. Pretty soon, she had a daily reasonable short list.

* * *

“I need to tell you something. Something really important. And I really need you to trust me about this.” She stared him down as she talked, but secretly wished him to be kind about the whole thing.

“Uh, sure I guess.” He frowned down at her, wondering what could possibly have this girl so upset.

“I’m Ladybug.”

“Marinette, what the fuck.” Ivan would have dropped his backpack had he not already set it on her living room floor.

There was somewhat of a silent pause as she wondered how to proceed from here.

“I mean, yeah, now that I think about it, it’s super obvious, but like also, what the fuck?”

“Why do you keep saying _what the fuck_?”

“Because why would you tell _me_?” He scrunched his face up in confusion. “Why not Alya or Adrien or Nino or… someone else?”

“Because you’re, like, an independent party, I guess.” She shrugged, squirming. “Alya would get pissed I hadn’t told her sooner, Adrien would be super weird about the whole thing, Nino would cave and tell Alya as soon as she pressed him about anything, Rose would get excited and go tell literally everyone, Alix has the emotional range of a peanut, Kim can’t keep up with any sort of conversation I try and start with him and he gets super distracted, Chloe and Ladybug have their issues, Sabrina and Chloe are glued together, Juleka… I have my reasons for not telling her anything, Nath would melt into a puddle of embarrassment if he knew he wrote a comic about me, Marc doesn’t really know me all that well, Max… also has limited emotional range, Lila is a fucking bitch-”

“Language.”

“-And, I love Meyléne dearly, but I can’t trust that she wouldn’t tell Alya either. You were the most reasonable option.” He nodded, slowly starting to understand where she was coming from.

“Reasonable… I mean, I guess.”

“Anyway, I needed to talk to you about more important things too.”

“What could be more important than you being Ladybug?”

“Oh, I don’t know, maybe the problems that come with being Ladybug and never being able to talk to anyone about them because of constant fear that it holds over my head.” She pulled a pitcher of water out of the fridge, and poured herself a glass to prepare for the shitstorm of tears that were about to come.

“Ah.” He nodded, and took a seat at her kitchen table.

“Like, do you know how ridiculous this whole thing is?” She had wanted to start this whole conversation slowly, but felt herself having a breakdown as she wandered about her kitchen aimlessly.

“It is ridiculously stressful. I have to lie to my friends and family every single day about why I’m so tired all the time, and then when they catch me in a lie they think its beicase I’m an asshole, when in reality I’m saving all their dumb asses from an evil dictator. Can you imagine?” She started to make herself a sandwich as a distraction. She knew she needed to talk while doing something else so she wouldn’t second-guess herself and stop talking. 

“I seriously thought that after we took down this stupid-ass Hawkmoth guy the lying would be able to stop, but no. I end up having a mental breakdown about my sense of self-worth and I try to hold everything together by myself because I can't even go to a real proper therapist for it because you really never know these days, and I really really really needed to talk to someone about my mental health but the risks that would come with discussing its origin was too great, and now here I am talking to one of my friends about how I’ve been lying to him for the last, what five? Six years?” She set the sandwich to the side and started on another one.

“You want ham or turkey?” 

“Oh, I’m not really all that-”

“Ham. Or turkey.” She raised her voice slightly.

“Ham.” He paused. “With cheese and mustard and pickles. If you have them.”

“Yes we have them. We also have a kid who is struggling.” She dug the bread back out of where she had put it back to, and he wondered what to say to this info dump.

“You mentioned that you couldn’t talk about the root of your mental health issues, specifically self-worth? Elaborate.” He really was struggling to keep up with this conversation from the beginning, but at least he was trying.

“Oh hallelujah you can help.” She pulled out a whole pickle and started slicing it up. “So basically, I’ve spent the majority of the last, I guess, let’s say, five years, dedicating my whole entire Ladybug life to taking down one man, and now that that one man is gone, I feel like the whole need for that entire persona is gone. Like, the entire purpose of Ladybug was to complete one task. The task has been completed. Now what? Why should ladybug continue to exist if the one thing she was made to do has been done?” She put the pickles on the sandwich, and then slid the plate across the table to him. “But then on the other hand, what would the consequence be of Ladybug not being around anymore? How does Ladybug just… retire? And then what comes next? How do I just suddenly stop doing something I practically grew up doing?”

“Depends on what you want to do.” He said before biting into the sandwich. She slumped down into her chair.

“What?” He thought as he chewed, then swallowed.

“You think that you have to stop being Ladybug because she’s done what she had to do. But you’re concerned about what will happen when you do eventually stop. You’re concerned because you don’t _actually_ think there’s no more need for Ladybug. You think there is still a need for her to keep up appearances so that crime rates will stay down with the constant threat of a superhuman kicking their ass. You want to stay being Ladybug.” She froze as the words sank into her brain.

“Ivan, you’re a genius.” She mumbled. 

“Chew with your mouth closed, Marinette.” He teased, but she wasn’t paying attention. She just took another bite as thoughts raced through her mind. 

* * *

  
  
  


“Chat we gotta talk about something serious.” Her feet dangled over the edge of a random building as she stared down at the street below.

“What’s up, Bug?” He sat down next to her.

“I did something you wouldn’t like me doing, but I had to do it for the sake of my mental health. I really really didn’t mean to hurt anyone, I swear, but I just-”

“It’s ok.” He bumped his shoulder into hers, and she took a deep sigh. “Just take it slow.”

“My problems with balancing my civilian self and my Ladybug self got to be too much to handle. I… I revealed myself to someone I trusted.” She confessed to him. She heard an almost silent sharp intake of breath, and she felt some slight regret as soon as she heard it. The longer the silence lasted, the more she swore the road below her was getting closer.

“Well,” He started, “If it was necessary to keep you sane, then I guess I’ll have to live with it.” He didn’t sound disappointed or angry, and she almost started crying. But she held herself together and refrained from jumping over the edge.

“I wanted to tell you what we talked about.” Her voice seemed to shrink along with her body, and he nodded. 

“You only have to tell me what you want to, princess.”

“I didn’t say anything about, like, you and me, or anything about actually being Ladybug, really, but I told him I felt like there was no longer a need for Ladybug if she had no enemy. But then I said I was worried about what would happen if I stopped being Ladybug.” He seemed to have stopped breathing, but didn’t interrupt her. “And then he said that I was concerned about the wellbeing of Paris because deep down I really didn’t want to stop being Ladybug, and that I just needed to very slowly keep up appearances as Ladybug without being Ladybug a large percent of the time so that people would see the city is still under protection and not try to, you know, do crime, and whatever, but not do it so much that it’s stressful for my civilian self.” She wondered if he had straight-up fainted with how long of a pause there was between them. 

“It sounds like you have a smart friend.” He offered. She snorted.

“Yeah. I do.” She shifted her position on the roof. “But I have a preposition for you.” He sat up straighter. 

“And what that, M’lady?”

“But whatever happens, I need you to keep being Chat Noir, ok?” Ne nodded, and she continued. “I think I need to take a break from Paris. I’m worried about how it will do without me, so I need to see what it’s like with no hero as well as no villain.” He gave her a blank stare.

“You do know the definition of preposition, right?” He finally said, and she burst out laughing. 

“We can be honest with each other about at least one thing, right?”

“Yeah. Right.” 

“So you’re seventeen, right?” He froze. 

“Yeah. I am.” Chat Noir tilted his head, wondering where she was going with this.

“So senior year is about to start, right?” She raised an eyebrow at him. 

“Yeah. It is.”

“Well, I was thinking, I need to take a break from Paris to get confirmation for my own eyes that I’m not crazy by going away to college next year. The preposition is, I spend the next, uh, ten months making minimal appearances as Ladybug, then I go away for college somewhere really far away and then I leave you to keep up the appearances by yourself and see how the people react. If crime suddenly goes up, I promise I’ll drop everything and come back, but we basically give Paris healing time to go back to normal.”

“One problem with that.”

“What?” She smirked, “You’re gonna miss me too much?”

“Uh, no.” He squirmed. “I was wondering how to tell you, but… Ladybug, I want to go to a London University.” He confessed. She looked back over at the people walking down the sidewalk, pondering her options. She refused to let a small hindrance stop her plan. She perked up with a new idea. He noticed her sudden excitement, and raised an eyebrow, waiting for an explanation. 

“Plan B!” She pulled her legs up, and sat cross legged and raised her hands like the guy in the ‘ALIENS’ meme, “Alya and Nino!” He screwed up his face in confusion, not getting her point. 

“M’lady what the fuck.”

“Carapace and Rena Rouge! I thought you knew?” His eyebrows widened in surprise and she realised he must have missed that.

“Oh my god Nino has been Carapace the whole time?”

“Holy shit are you stupid? He and Rena Rouge have literally accidently blown their covers so many goddamn times I’m surprised all of Paris doesn’t know.” She laughed. 

“Me-owch, M’lady.” He frowned at her playfully. “But anyway, how the hell is this our plan B?”

“Plan B: We spend the next however many months, seriously is it eight? Ten? I have no idea how long school is, anyway, we spend the next so many months training them to be the next heroes of Paris to take out place so that we can take a little University break from, you know, being us, which allows them to still remain being heroes and yet only have to deal with little trivial stuff. And their whole presence should be enough to keep crime rates down.” Chat pondered the option, but wasn’t completely sold on the idea. 

“We really do need to take a break…” He shrugged. “Sure. Why not.”

“Alright.” Ladybug stood to her feet. “Let’s do this.” They formulated a plan.

  
  


* * *

Senior year started, and Marinette was fucking _extatic_ to get the hell out of town.

“Jeez Nette, you might steamroll a circus tent with all that energy.” Nino laughed as she bounded into class bright and early. He lounged lazily where he sat in the front row.

“Sorry not sorry.” She gave him finger guns and stuck her tongue out dramatically as she took her seat next to Alya. 

“Alright class, who wants to talk about college.” Mme. Bustier grinned cheekily at her homeroom students. They all collectively groaned, and she just smiled. “Prepare to hate all of your teachers for the next ten months as we continue to hound you all about financial aid and paper forms non-stop.” 

“So it _is_ ten.” Marinette mumbled. She didn’t mean to say that out loud. Whoops.

“So where is everyone thinking of applying to?” She sat down behind her desk, and started doing her attendance. 

“Daddy is sending me to an elite private school in southern france.” Chloe tossed her hair over her shoulder, and everyone just rolled their eyes.

“I think I might major in therapy at a local school.” Ivan piped up from the back of the classroom. Marinette froze, and mentally congratulated him. 

“ESCP Business, and then maybe get a lawyering degree.” Rose threw out there.

“Somewhere I can get really good at DJing.” Nino grinned.

“I think I want to go to an American school.” Marinette shrugged. The large silence did not go unnoticed. But no one really said anything else about it, and the topic was changed. 

* * *

  
  
  


“So let me get this straight.” Nino didn’t look away from her TV screen as they played the next level of her new updated Ultimate Mecha Strike game after school.

“Yeah?”

“You live in Paris.” She rolled her eyes. 

“Yes. I do.”

“And Paris is the fashion capital of the world.”

“Yes. It is.”

“And you want to study fashion.”

“I do.”

“And you _live in Paris_.” He emphasized. 

“ _Yes_ , I live in Paris.”

“And you want to go somewhere _else_? OTHER than the fashion capital of the world? Where you ALREADY LIVE. To study fashion?”

“Congratulations, you’re up to speed.” She deadpanned.

“I really don’t get you some days.”

“Well at least with me gone…” She paused for a few seconds before killing his character and ending the game. “You’ll probably have to play against people you can actually beat.”

“Where do you even want to go, anyway?”

“I don’t know. Probably somewhere fun. Like Gotham.”

“Gotham? Really?” He set his controller down in his lap, and looked at her like she was crazy. “That place practically has more crime than we do.”

“What do you mean _practically_?” She giggled, and then selected the next game. 

  
  



	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> When Kagami and Chloé run away from home at the same time, what are the odds they end up at the same place?

Training Carapace and Rena Rouge to be full-time heroes when there was no actual villain anymore proved to be… less than appetizing. Rena asked so many questions, which was good, but Ladybug didn’t have many answers, which was not good.

“Do you guys really think we can handle doing this all by ourselves?” Carapace asked as the four masked heroes sat like ducks in a row on top of the news building, hundreds of feet away from the pavement.

“I mean, you have like ten months to learn. Even longer if we don’t have to leave to move in too early.” Chat Noir shrugged.

“Plus, it’s not realy like there’s any real major threat you have to watch out for anymore. There really is no need for heroes anymore anyway, I’m just concerned that if heroes stop showing up altogether, that small petty crime will spike again.”

“Gee, thanks for the real vote of confidence.” Rena Rouge poked her in the side, and she giggled. 

“In all seriousness, I really think this could work. Paris gets slightly less aggressive heroes, the more terrifying heroes get to take a nice break from being annoyed as hell all the time, and you get to be a super-cool hero. A winning situation all around.”

“I believe you.” Rena assured. 

* * *

  
  


“So, rumor has it you don’t plan on being around much longer.” Kagami had a somewhat upset tone in her voice.

“Not, like, forever, just a little while.” Marinette set the two glasses of orange juice she was carrying down on the coffee table, and sat down next to her friend on the couch.

“What’s that mean?”

“So basically, Paris is the fashion capital of the world, right?”

“Yes. I don’t see why you would want to leave it.”

“Well, I’ve lived here my whole life, growing up surrounded by fashion, so why would I actually want to stay here if I’ve basically learned everything I need to from my point of view?” She started to explain as she pulled up Netflix and started typing in the show name.

“I don’t get it.” Kagami grumbled.

“I feel as though, for my age, and for growing up in Paris, I have learned a sufficient amount about fashion from the environment of the city. But when it comes down to actually getting a degree, I feel like staying in Paris would not  _ actually _ teach me as much as I want to learn. I feel as though I should take the opportunity of trying to learn as much as possible in an environment I’m not used to.”

“Huh.” Kagami pondered the idea, starting to see her point.

“Basically, if I were to boil it down to one sentence, my argument would be, if I am to take the time to learn to grow in a new way, I should do it somewhere I have not already grown before so I don’t stay stuck in repeat patterns.” She recited. She wouldn’t ever admit it, but it had actually taken her several hours to come up with a reason to convince people she shouldn’t study fashion in Paris. She almost had to convince herself of it.

“But you will be coming back, yes?”

“Oh yeah, obviously. If I want to own my own place someday, Paris is the best place to do it!”

“Ok. As long as you come back to me, that’s all that matters.” Marinette mused over her words for a second. 

“You could come with me, you know.” She offered. Kagami completely froze.

“I could what?”

“Yeah. I want to go somewhere fun and dangerous, you mentioned wanting to use University as an excuse to disobey your mother, and I think we can make that work just nicely.”

“Marinett, I-... I don’t know.” Marinette could tell that she was, however, seriously considering it.

“We can both apply to all the same overseas schools, and whichever ones we both get accepted to, we can go to together.” It didn’t sound like such a horrible idea, when she really thought about it. 

“You really think I can get away with that?” Kagami just about whispered as the show finally loaded and started to play. Marinette hit pause.

“Yeah. I do.” She looked up at her fencing friend, who had grown significantly taller than her over the last few years, and they gave each other small smiles as they began to hatch a plan. After the show, of course.

* * *

  
  
  


Marinette started to make a list. But she needed a little bit of help.

“You think I should go somewhere, like, really crime infested, somewhere with average amounts of crime, or one of those places that has so little crime it’s almost as if the whole place is run by creepy people?”

“That depends on what you feel you need.” Ivan wasn’t entirely sure why she called him back to her kitchen again, but after a while he realised it because she really needed a buffer for all of her over-thinking.

“What does that mean? What I  _ feel  _ I _ need _ ?” Oh boy. She was really down the rabbit hole this time.

“Well, last time I was here, you said you were worried that you would feel unneeded because you’re one task had been done. So as a remedy of sorts, you would take a break from being in Paris altogether to see how it functioned without you.” He started to explain to her, and he could see the numbers whirring around behind her eyes. He almost found it comical.

“Yeah? How does that tell me-”

“I’m not done. You’re taking a step away to see how Paris functions without you, but do you still want to be Ladybug where you go?” He finally reached his point. “If you are afraid of feeling useless, would it do you any good to go somewhere where it would be impossible for you to stop any sort of crime?” Her eyes widened, and he hoped she finally got it. 

“So you're saying that if my biggest fear is being useless, then I should go somewhere where there is a comically large crime rate?” She remembered telling Nino as a joke that she had been considering Gotham, knowing he would have freaked out a bit, but now she was seriously considering it. 

“Ok, maybe not a  _ comically larg _ e crime rate-”

“So like detroit?” She grinned. 

“Uh.” He wondered where to go from here.

“Anyway, next question: Somewhere with superheroes, so I can, like, relate to them, or something, or somewhere where I would be the only masked flashy red person?” Ivan sighed.

“If you were all alone, would you enjoy the peace, or would you miss your Chat Noir?” He tried. Deep down, he knew this was good. He knew she would so overthink things that she would somehow manage to isolate herself in alaska and torture herself into coming back, sooner than having a life she acutally wanted to live. He knew she couldn’t make these connections on her own. Secretly, he was mostly glad she had shared her identity with him so that he had the ability to play mediator with all of her terrible thoughts. She needed it, and he was glad she had taken initiative to get herself some help… even if it was from the least qualified person. 

“I guess…” She pulled her knees close to her chest, and hummed. “I think I wouldn’t want to be lonely.”

“Good for you.” He watched as she wrote that down too. “What else?”

“Uh… I think that’s it for location, but I had another question, too.”

“Fire away.” It had certainly been a strange month, what else could go wrong?

“Do you think I should stay being the same Ladybug, or should I get a little… costume change?” Ok, maybe he hadn’t seen that coming. 

“I guess that depends on your environment.” He shrugged. “Ladybug, to Paris, is like a savior. You had one enemy, and only one, and you and Chat Noir were the only ones with the unique ability to stop him. Elsewhere, you aren’t like that. In any other city, you’re just another hero.” She nodded.

“The current Ladybug is seen as a beacon of hope. The costume is flashy, it’s intentionally brightly visible.” She looked almost as if she was going to ask something else as she turned her head towards the sink, but then seemed to decide against it.

“So if you go somewhere dark and miserable, maybe something bright and flashy would be a little… not good.”

“But that’s looking like more of a ‘when I get there’ problem, and not a ‘right now’ problem.”

“True.” She nodded, deep in thought.

“Hey, Ivan?” She turned to look at him.

“Yeah?”

“Can I ask you a question?” He snorted.

“You haven’t _ stopped _ asking me questions.” 

“I mean about you. I’ve been sitting here asking for advice, but I want to ask something about you.” he noticed the seriousness of her tone.

“Ask anything.”

“Why haven’t you asked me about what it’s like to be Ladybug? I mean, anyone else would have jumped right into ‘where did you get your powers’ and ‘how did you become Ladybug’ and ‘how do you communicate with Chat Noir’ all that. But you didn't ask me anything. You just kept answering all of my questions, no hesitation.” He thought about it for a second,

“I guess I didn’t think to ask you that. I saw how distressed you were when you confessed, and I thought it was more important to be a good friend rather than, I don’t know, a fan.” He mumbled. He looked up from staring at the table, and saw she was smiling brighter than she had in awhile.

“That means a lot more to me than you know.” She was quiet, but he wasn’t deaf. He decided to break the silence. 

“Hey, you know, Meylén really loves those fruity cookies you brought in a few weeks ago, do you think you could show me how to make those? I’d love to be able to make something special for her.” She grinned, and jumped up to go grab her recipe book.

* * *

She walked into school the next day, and started asking her teachers for recommendations on how to fill out her college application forms. She got varying degrees of helpfulness, but she valued all of the help she could get. 

Fourth period came, and she sat down in her Language Arts class next to Rose. Alya and Juleka took a special type of writing class that replaced this one.

“Alright!” Her teacher yelled from her seat, somewhat excitedly. “Now that we’re about three weeks into school, and you all have your school brains back in order, I want to start a writing activity that should help you write your University application essays.” Marinette sat up straighter as she said this. “Your prompt will be to write about an event that happened in your life that taught you an important lesson.” She continued to give advice about where they should draw inspiration from, common mistakes to avoid, but Marinette wasn’t paying attention. She was thinking about the first day she became Ladybug. She couldn’t write about that, obviously, but that didn’t stop her from thinking about it. 

She considered writing about the Friendship Day contest, when she realized being kind to someone she didn’t like at the time was more important than, you know, sabotaging her for a chance with a guy they both liked. Or maybe she should write about how she tried to sneak into a party dressed as a man to check in on Adrien when she hadn’t heard from him in a while. That might not go over so well if the application committee didn’t have a sense of humor. Maybe she could save it for a scholarship…

Mrs. DeCroix has stopped talking. Marinette silently swore to herself when she realized she hadn’t gotten any good advice while zoned out, but everyone else seemed to have pulled out their laptops, so she did as well.

She decided to write about when she met Jagged Stone. How she had half-assed her job the first time for a selfish reason, but when she did a good job the second time she was rewarded with something that would change her life and she shouldn’t have gone the easy way out the first time. She would write how she had learned that future selfish actions could prevent her from important things that could help out her future fashion career. That seemed to be like a good option. 

* * *

  
  


She sat on her bed later that day, continuing to work on her writing assignment. She wanted to write every little part of the story, but she knew if she wrote too much it wouldn’t be all that interesting. She chose to leave out the part that maybe would have incriminated Chloé as well, not wanting to seem like she was bashing a random girl for no reason. Speaking of which…

Her ringtone had somehow managed to come off silent, and it nearly scared the shit out of her. She looked at the caller ID and realized it was Chloe. She hadn’t really even talked to her in two years. They mostly just tolerated each other, not really fighting but not really getting along either. If she was calling, it must be important.

“Hey Chloé, what’s up?” She tried to judge her reaction. She was met with a sniffle. What the-

“My parents are fighting, Marinette.” She seemed to sound almost small and scared, and she went into instant Ladybug Mom Mode. 

“Do you need me to come get you?” Marinette was the only person who knew that her parents actually had pretty terrible fights. Sure, everyone knew they didn’t get along because of their long-distance relationship, but no one knew they were downright nasty to each other.

“Please.” This wasn’t the first time this had happened. A few years ago, before they stopped hating each other and fighting all the time, there had been an instance where Chloe had run out of the place not entirely running away while not entirely planning on returning either. She had been lost and alone and the only person she knew would be there for anyone, no matter who it was, was Marinette. She had shown up at the bakery, begrudgingly ordered a croissant, and just… never left. She sat at the window for around six hours before Marinette had offered her to spend the night, to which she had only responded by bursting into tears. It had been a strange two days. They hadn’t really been the same after that.

“Hi!” Marinette waved to her butler, who just made a somewhat pleased face as he let her into Chloé’s room. “Hey you, what’s going on?” She said as Chloé nearly stormed out of her own room. “Where are we-” Chloé almost aggressively grabbed her hand, threw a backpack over her other shoulder, yanked her towards the elevator, and off they went.

“André was last seen by the Eiffel Tower five minutes ago. We don’t have much time.” She scowled. She still had not let go of Marinette’s hand. Neither of them were going to mention it. 

“Don’t couple’s usually go to André’s?” Marinette nervously pointed out.

“I don’t give a fuck.” Chloé grumbled. “I will do whatever it takes to get that Peach Mango stuff, even if I have to kiss you to do so.” Marinette snorted, which turned into a choke, which turned into having a coughing fit. That was what finally seemed to make Chloé stop grouching. 

“Are you serious?” Marinette finally managed to stop coughing, and laughed. “You wouldn’t dare.”

“Am I really that detestable, Dupain-Cheng?” She smirked, and they stepped off the elevator to head towards the big open doors. 

“I- What, no, I just-”

“I can’t believe you would doubt my ability to do absolutely anything for that ice cream.” Chloé shook her head, still holding on to Marinette’s hand, and pulled her out the door. Sure enough, they found him within a hundred feet from where he was said to have been seen last, and ordered. 

André was an expert at love. Even though Chloé was unstable enough she needed to hold on to someone's hand, he knew they were just friends. He was also an expert on who needed ice cream. Instead of the usual small scoops of whatever he felt someone needed, he gave them a rather large bowl full of Peach Mango (bright light orange for the color of familiar warmness, he would say) and two plastic spoons for them to eat with. 

They took their monstrosity of a dessert towards the end of the bridge, and started to make their way through it. They were mostly done when Marinette’s phone rang again. It was Kagami. She didn’t want to take attention away from Chloé, but she had a gut feeling she should.

“Hey, what’s up?” She answered.

“We have a bit of a… problem.” Kagami sounded stiff.

“What kind of a problem?” She tried to tread slowly.

“I may have mentioned wanting to go to school outside of Tokyo to my mother and she was… less than pleased.” There was a moment of silence between them. “May I come stay with you for a while?”

“I’m hanging out with Chloé right this very second, but we’ll be on our way to come and get you as soon as we find a garbage can.” Chloé raised an eyebrow at her. “We can have a sleepover this weekend, the three of us, if you both don’t mind.” 

“Sure, I don’t care.” Chloé seemed almost relieved to have another friend, and relaxed her shoulders a bit.

“Thank you.” Kagami whispered into the phone, and Marinette knew she had to hurry.

* * *

  
  


“One, two, three, push!” Marinette yelled, and the three girls all pushed the couch at the same time, from different ends, to spin it around. They made it so it was facing directly away from the tv, so they could spread a bed sheet from the tv stand to the back of the couch to make a blanket fort. 

Once they had done that, they added a few more blankets to the side to give it some walls. 

“Come over here, we have a big linen closet full of extra pillows we can use.” Kagami followed Marinette to the closet by the bathroom, and Marinette filled her outstretched arms with as many pillows as she could force her to carry.

“Ok, ok, alright, Marinette, stop!” Kagami laughed, a real genuine laugh, as she carried nearly fifteen pillows to the living room. 

“Chloé, help.” Marinette yelled, and Chloé came out to see what she needed. “I can’t reach the pillows on the top shelf.” Chloé couldn’t either, nor could Kagami. 

“On the count of three,” Kagami gave Chloé a mischievous look, and Marinette frowned.

“Wait, on the count of three what-” 

“One, two, three!” They both grabbed one of her legs, lifting her up into the air, drastically miscalculating how little she weighed, and nearly would have hit her head on the ceiling if she hadn’t stuck her hands in the air at the last second to stop herself.

“Whoops. Sorry Marinette.” Chloé giggled, and she could only laugh as she pulled down all of the extra-fluffy blankets. She dropped two so they landed on her friends’ heads, and they almost dropped her as a result. She could only just smile.

* * *

  
  


They spent the whole night binge watching Brooklyn Nine-Nine, from the beginning, and not stopping until season five. They watched it until three in the morning, before Sabine reminded Marinette she was going to have to work in the morning. Then they sighed, turned out the lights, and turned the tv off. They laid there, in a small girl pile, until Chloe started to say something. 

“Marinette, can I tell you something?” She quietly spoke into the pitch black.

“Sure.” Chloé moved herself so she was resting her head on Marinette’s stomach. At least, she  _ thought _ it was her stomach. She could hear her heartbeat, and felt her chest rising and falling. Yup, it was her stomach.

“My parents weren’t fighting each other because of some silly thing as always. They were fighting because of me.” There was silence once again, and Chloé felt like she could go on. “My mom came home two days ago, and this morning we were having a nice conversation for once, and she asked me if I liked any boys, and I said…” She drifted off. She decided to just bite the bullet. “I said no, but that I liked a girl.” She could feel Marinette’s breathing slow, but somehow, she didn’t feel unsafe.

“You will always be welcome in my house, Chloé. I’ve got your back no matter what.” Chloé smiled, knowing Marinette couldn’t see her. 

“Mom said that too. She said that being in the fashion industry, she had seen plenty of creative individuals and that their identities did not change the quality of their work.” Honestly, Chloé had been surprised. It was the nicest thing her mother had said to her in years. “But my dad was a little upset. He said he didn’t like it and that I had to stop.” She could feel Marinette tense up again, but this time it was because she knew Marinette was fully considering punching the mayor in the face.

“I mean what I said.” Marinette reached to pet her on the head, and accidentally slapped her in the face instead. Chloé snorted, but Marinette finally found her scalp line, and started to run her fingers through her friends hair. 

“I know.” There was a moment of silence, before Kagami broke it.

“So, who’s the lucky girl?” Chloé almost kicked her in the face out of surprise, having forgotten the girl was even there in the darkness.

“What the fuck.” Marinette had heard a loud noise, but had been unable to see what had actually happened. 

“Geez, sorry Bourgeois, I won’t ask again.” She grumbled. 

“No, sorry, it’s fine, I just... you scared me.” She giggled. 

“Well, are we getting an answer or not, Chlo?” Marinette poked her in the head, and she sighed. 

“Her name is Ava. She’s in my drawing and painting elective.” She felt her face grow warm thinking about her, and was grateful for the darkness that surrounded them.

“Ooooooh.” Marinette teased her.

“I will fight her to see if she is worthy of you.” No one could ever tell if she was joking or not.

“Gami, no.” Marinette laughed, and Chloé could honestly say she had never felt happier in her life than she did right then. 

“Gami yes.” Chloé giggled at her third-person response. There was another moment of silence that was once again broken by the fencer, “You know, while we’re on the topic, I think I might be bi.”

“Good for you.” Chloé went to high-five her before remembering she couldn’t see her hand. She let her hand drop.

“Did you just try and high-five me?” Kagami laughed.

“How did you know?” She wondered if the girl had echo-location skills like a bat. 

“I heard you pick your hand up, and there was a strangely long period of time before you set it down again.” Ok, maybe she was smarter than she gave her credit for.

“There’s no way you did that. You have to be using night-vision goggles or something.” Marinette marvelled.

“Wait, Kagami, you hold your hand up, wave it around, and I’ll wave mine around, and then we’ll eventually find each other and then we can high-five.” Chloé instructed her, and tried it out herself. Eventually, after barely missing her with her pinky a few times, she finally managed to grab her wrist to hold it still for high-five. They all three giggled, and then finally,  _ finally, _ went to sleep.

* * *

  
  


The next day, Marinette groaned as she had to get dressed to help out with the bakery front desk after getting four hours of sleep. But she didn’t regret a single thing about the night before. 

She was practically holding her head in her hands when she heard the door open for the gazillionth time that day. But when she saw it was men in police uniforms, she snapped to attention. 

“Hello, miss.” One of them said to her. They held up a picture of Chloé “we were wondering if you have seen this girl recently?”

“Yeah, not that long ago.” She couldn’t lie to the police. That would be very un-ladybug-like of her. 

“Did she seem to be in any stress of any type? Was she with someone?” She wanted to say,  _ Yeah, she was with me, and she was under so much stress she cried buckets _ to tell the truth, but she couldn’t. They would just march her upstairs and take her back.

“No, she was by herself, and she seemed to be totally fine. Really happy, even.” It was at least somewhat true. She had been laughing last night, and had been alone when she had gone to the bathroom. True statements, different moments in time. 

“Well, if you see her again, tell her we’re looking for her.” The two men gave each other a look, but said nothing. They gave her a note card with a phone number on it to call, and she stuck it under the counter. This was a problem.

* * *

As soon as she could, she came up with some bs excuse to leave the bakery, and ran out as Ladybug. It only took her partner a few minutes to fund her.

“Ladybug! Have you heard? The mayor’s daughter-”

“Is perfectly fine, Chat.” She interrupted him. “That’s what I need to talk to you about.” 

“What?” He scrunched his face all up in confusion, and she pointed to the Eiffel Tower. 

“We need to talk away from people.” 

The highest place on the Eiffel was completely inaccessible to anyone who was not a masked hero. They sat up where no one could possibly hear them, which was where they had most of their ‘secret’ meetings. It was a wonder they hadn’t managed to get bugged. Haha,  _ bugged _ .

“What do you mean, you know Chloé is fine? How are you sure?”

“Because  _ I am _ , Chat. I can’t tell you how I know without revealing myself to you, ya goose.” She rolled her eyes. “But the problem isn’t her. She’s afraid to go back home, she doesn’t feel safe there anymore.” Chat Noir visibly froze.

“Thats…”

“Not good.” She grumbled. “How do we let the police know that Chloé is fine and doesn’t want to go home without turning this into a city-wide panic?” He nodded, realizing. 

“If the Mayor’s daughter is afraid to be around him, what business would he have being the mayor?” He was quiet, but she could see his mind was elsewhere. He must be pretty worried. “Ok, but do you mind telling me why she’s scared to go home? I really don’t want an abusive person in office.”

“That’s…” She wanted to tell him, but that would be a breach of trust. “Not my place to say.”

“But you do know why, don’t you?” He leaned towards her, trying to do his best ‘evil Chat glare’. It didn’t work.

“I know she is currently safe. I know the mayor is not  _ currently _ a threat to the people. I know that if you ask her yourself, she may tell you. And if she does tell you, you will realize that my not telling you was of my respect for her decision to reveal herself to others. I won’t cross that line with her.” He seemed to back down as he leaned backwards. 

“I just… She’s not  _ hurt _ , is she?” She sighed deeply through her nose.

“No, Kitty, she’s perfectly healthy. Maybe not mentally, but I  _ promise _ you she’s fine.” She repeated. They both seemed to wonder where to go from there.

“Wait, I think I’ve got it.” He stood up, and readied his baton. “She can legally get emancipated, right?” Ladybug’s eyes lit up as she saw where he was going with this. 

“Yeah, she can.”

“If she really is safe where she is, and I trust you M’Lady, she can just try and quietly leave without the media freaking out over it.” Ladybug considered how to get her to go through with this, and had an idea.

“Chat, this may take a minute, but I think I got this.” She rose up next to him, and swung off into the city below. 

* * *

  
  


“We can’t stay on the floor forever, you know.” Marinette mumbled later that night, trying not to look antsy. 

“Yeah, I’m sure your parents would appreciate having their couch and TV back.” Kagami sighed. 

She did have a guest bedroom, but it only had one bed. Her bed had used to be a bunk bed, but it would take quite a lot to put it back together. Maybe she could get a new one in the guest bedroom. She would have to talk to her parents about that.

“It’s hot in here, let’s go sit on my balcony.” She headed towards the fridge, grabbed three cans of lemonade, and they climbed their way to the roof. They all sat down cross-legged, and watched the people way down on the street. 

  
  


* * *

  
  


It was nearly Halloween, and from where Chat Noir stood, he could see three total decorations for the holiday. He was honestly kinda disappointed the city didn’t celebrate it more, he did love the holiday very much.

But he could also see through the windows to one particular bakery in the center of town, where three of his best friends sat around the dinner table with their loving parents who did the most for them, even when it was difficult. He could see a family of three girls who held a bond that very few others could have: chosen family. There was an english phrase for this, he knew: Home is where the heart is. And he saw a lot of heart at that little blue table. From where he stood, he could see that Ladybug had been right. She had this.

  
  



	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Tom and Sabine pull a Bruce Wayne and adopt some kids. 
> 
> Marinette makes a group chat.

Marinette couldn’t share her room, it was crammed full of sewing supplies and art inspiration. It wasn’t that she didn’t want to, it was that she really just couldn’t. But her parents, who had been more than willing to keep the two young girls who had randomly shown up in their house and never left, bought them a bunk bed to share in what had been the guest room. Her Nonna, no,  _ their  _ Nonna now, would have to stay somewhere else when she visited now. Which was exactly what she did when she had heard the news her son was adopting two of her Nettes friends. 

* * *

  
  


Marinette sat on the rug on her sisters’ bedroom floor as they talked about their future. Both Marinette and Kagami had already applied to Gotham University, but Chloé was hesitant to go to such a place. 

“It looks dreadful, Dupain-Cheng, why would I intentionally go somewhere dreadful?”

“Hey.  _ You’re _ Dupain-Cheng now too, dumbass.” Kagami reminded her without looking up from her laptop. “And honestly, this place looks like one of the most prestigious places in America. Are you sure we can all three get in, Marinette?”

“Positive.” Marinette was positive about hoping they could get in, she wasn’t actually sure. Only time could tell.

  
  


Kagami and Chloé did have occasional fights, like over what color to paint the walls of their room, and closet space, but other than that they got along fairly well. Maybe it was the rich person background Marinette couldn’t relate to, but they had something that made them get along. Maybe it was just Chloé’s not feeling unsafe and chilling the fuck out that made them get along.

  
  


The class had taken the news… strangely. At first, no one really believed that Chloé and Marinette actually lived in the same building now, much less that her parents had actually willingly let Chloé stay in the house longer than a week. Ivan gave her a raised eyebrow one day in class, and she just made a cringe face back at him. 

Maybe they finally believed it when Kagami enrolled, and was put in their homeroom. 

  
  


* * *

By November, Marinette had not heard back from the school. But Chloé had distracted herself from feeling nervous about being rejected by filling out various forms of paperwork. She had gotten a new passport, a new birth certificate, and a new driver's license with her new last name. If marinette didn’t know any better, she would think Chloé was proud of it or something. 

Kagami had been hesitant to even go through with the whole thing at all and Marinette hadn’t blamed her. She had first been betrayed because her mother hadn’t even reported her missing on account of assuming she would return home without being asked. Kagami had felt like she was being manipulated by her mother when she had lived at home, and that was why she had gone to Marinette in the first place. After living with stable normal people for a few weeks, she had finally accepted to go through with it. She did enjoy the idea of having siblings her own age.

* * *

And then came the Ladybug issue. She could only last so long, lying to her family about where she was going and what she was doing when she had gone from two of them being downstairs all the time to four of them, and two who could spot her at any moment. She wondered how long she should wait before telling them. She figured the longer she waited, the more betrayed they would feel, but if she told them sooner, it could just be really weird. 

  
  


“Chat, we might have a problem.”

“Oh no.” It was mid-december, but neither of them were cold thanks to magic. “Is your identity about to be compromised?”

“Chat, I know there is no Hawkmoth anymore, so the threat of someone using them against us is seriously slim to none, but I just can’t help but feel like…”

“Like you're waiting for the other shoe to drop.” He nodded. “I know.”

“If there are considerably less chances, why don’t we reveal ourselves to each other? Why can’t I tell my family?” She wasn’t seriously asking him, just sarcastically throwing the obvious out there. 

“I think you’ll end up having to learn my identity when I give you the ring back so you can take it with you wherever you end up going.” She hadn’t thought about that before, really. Taking his ring when she went to America for safety reasons. She was leaving the fox and the turtle with Nino and Alya, after all. 

“I wish I knew half of what people thought I did.”

“But I take it this person is close to you?” He brought back around the conversation. 

“Two people, actually. They mean a lot to me. And I think it’s in their best interest that they know before they find out by accident and I hurt their feelings.”

“Go for it, m’Lady.” He hated the words, but he knew they were true. There really was no need to hide the identity from special people anymore. Not unless some serious crime started happening real fast. 

* * *

  
  
  


By the end of January, Marinette had heard back from Gotham University. So had Kagami. They both had gotten in. Chloé’s application was farther down the list, so they must not have completely processed it yet. 

“Ugh, you cannot move into that disgusting two-bedroom apartment.” Chloé looked over their shoulders as they sat at the kitchen table and planned for places they could live once they moved to Gotham. 

“Why? It’s close to the school, it’s nice, and it’s reasonably priced.” Kagami argued.

“Because ‘ _ cheap _ ’ and ‘ _ A place in Gotham _ ’ most certainly means it’s constantly hit with villains.” Chloé snapped back. She had a point.

“Well, if you get in, then we can get a three-bedroom place, and it won’t be so shitty.”

“What, you plan on mooching off of my trust fund?” She teased. She had gained early access when she had separated herself from her parents. 

“Yeah, basically.” Kagami retorted.

“Guys we are literally superheroes. I think kicking ass every once in a while in exchange for not paying ridiculous rent is fine.” It really wasn’t, it wasn’t fine at all.

“We? Marinette, our identities have been compromised. There is literally no way we can-”

“Bold of you to assume I won’t just give you a new outfit and a new name, and then bim bam boom: No one knows it’s just you.” She shrugged. Kagami rubbed her chin, thinking it over.

“How about this?” Chloe turned her laptop screen around to show one of the nicest places Marinette had looked at yet. It had amazing reviews, seemed to be out of the way of a lot of crime, and was two blocks away from the school. 

“Chlo, that’s three thousand dollars a month. It’s basically a penthouse. Split between the three of us, that’s still a thousand dollars a month. I don’t think we can handle that.”

“Fine. I take two thousand a month, you two split the left over one.”

“Actually, I get a ridiculous amount of money from commissions. I can do about 700 dollars a month, Gami I know can do around 500 with what you have saved from competitions, that leaves Chlo only 1800. That seems to be split fairly, just not evenly.”

“Fine.” They saved it as an option, but kept looking at other student housing anyway. Finally, they found a three bedroom apartment, on campus, that they wouldn’t have to get assigned roommates to be living in it. It was perfect, and it was in the tuition plan. Super perfect. 

* * *

  
  
  


Alya and Marinette were sitting on a bench at the Zoo when Chloé called her screaming. Marinette knew it was the good kind of screaming, or else Ladybug would have shown up in four seconds flat. 

“I GOT IN! I ACTUALLY GOT IN! I CAN’T BELIEVE I GOT IN!” Marinette could hear thumping, and knew Chloé was jumping around like a madman. 

“That’s so awesome!” Marinette was super proud she had gotten accepted. “I make you a celebratory cake when I get home.” 

“Ok. Sounds like a plan. Ugh, you’re the best!” Chloé hung up on her, and she just giggled. 

“Want to come over for cake tonight, Alya?” She offered, and her friend just… gave her a blank stare.

“I still can’t believe you and her actually live together. It’s just so… weird.” Marinette rolled her eyes.

“Old news, Als. You of all people should know when to let go of old news.” Alya pretended to scoff at her as they got up off the bench, and headed to tell her father they were headed back to the bakery. “You pride yourself in never posting false facts in the Ladyblog.”

“ _ Almost _ never.” The whole Lila incident still left a sore spot on her ego. 

“Ok, fine.You pride yourself in being someone who doesn’t  _ stick  _ to false facts.” She tried again. Alya lightened up a little at that.

“Dad, we’re going to Marinette’s place to have some cake.” Alaya yelled into the panther cage. 

“Mind feeding the elephants before you go?” He yelled back. He knew that was Marinette’s favorite thing to do. She absolutely  _ loved _ the elephants. 

“Yes!” Marinette cheered, and turned to head towards one of the many service doors all around the zoo. They headed towards the elephant enclosure, which wasn’t very far from the panther one, and met up with a few zoo employees who had been told ahead of time they might be showing up. 

They had prepared a few big plastic buckets full of the food for her to carry out into the enclosure to put in their specific spots. 

* * *

  
  


Alya watched as the elephants crowded around her best friend. She loved watching Marinette like this, giggling as the animals poked her with their trunks to get their food into place. She looked so happy, so excited, instead of her usual tired, scared, and general out-of-energy self that she always seemed to be.

Alya had felt her friend being on the verge of giving up over the summer. But the week before school had started, something had… changed. Marinette looked more stable, she focused more in class, and spent a lot less time staring at the back of Adrien’s head like she was about to fall into it. 

She was proud of her, whatever happened. She felt a little left out recently, but her friend was still trying to make time for her even though their lives were changing drastically. She was sure that normal people’s lives didn’t change  _ this _ drastically at this age, but everyone had to be different. Her grandmother used to tell her,  _ it takes all kinds to make the world go ‘round _ . That was dangerously true.

* * *

  
  
  


By June, everything was set and ready to go. The three Dupain-Cheng girls were going to Gotham University, living in the same apartment, and going for their own degrees: Marinette with fashion and art design, Chloé for business, and Kagami for physical therapy. That had somewhat shocked the other two, they would have thought something more along the technology lines, but nope. Kagami wanted to be a doctor that worked with trauma patients for physical therapy. How interesting. 

Marinette stared at a sketchbook, looking at her new Ladybug design. A solid black suit with small red rings around her wrist, neckline, and boots. They were three rows wide, staggering, and got smaller as they went out. Her fingers were styled as if her fingers had been dipped in red paint, but only to the middle joint in her finger. Her mask, black as well, now no longer showed the color of her eyes, but actually had a red filter over the opening, and extended a little wider than her last mask. 

She stared at it, wondering why something seemed off about it, before realising: She didn’t wear boots. 

She laughed as she sat at her desk, and Kagami yelled from where the hatch in her floor was open.

“What are you laughing so hard at?”

“I forgot what I look like.” Marinette yelled back. 

“Oh.” She flipped the page over, and started a new Ryuko. It was, of course, also solid black. Where the black dragon tail had snaked up her leg had been, was now a thin, red dragon tail. Basically, she had inverted the colors and shrunk it.

The bright colors of the mask had been messed with, too. Slimmer lines, less wide on her face, and now pitch black.

Then she messed with Chat Noir. Obviously, Chloé really couldn’t go back to being Queen Bee. No matter  _ how  _ many changes she made to Chloé’s outfit, she would still be very obviously herself. 

But the more she looked at the current Chat, she realized it wouldn't actually need to be messed with. Chat Noir was… well, Noir. That didn’t need to change. 

  
  


* * *

  
  
  


She was leaning so far sideways on Nino’s couch she was almost playing the game upside down.

“Nino, what the actual fuck?” He actually managed to last longer than two minutes before she killed him this time.

“Maybe you could beat me better if the blood wasn’t rushing to your head,” He laughed from where he was on the other side of the couch. 

“You know what?” She kicked him in the ribs, “Fuck you.” There was a whole graduation party happening around them, but neither of them really paid attention. They focused on just trying to kick each other's ass. Well, Marinettte focused on kicking ass, Nino focused on not dying. 

“Come on you two, let’s play a game where more than two people can play.” Alix complained. Marinette finished the game, and gave her oldest friend a knowing look.

“Fine.” Nino took the Ultimate Mecha Strike disk out of the console, and put in a DDR one instead. Someone dug out the old mats, and they started. They started their mini tournament. Nino, of course, did dramatic commentary through the whole thing. 

Alix absolutely destroyed most of the people she went up against, but shockingly Adrien ended up being her biggest competitor. She eventually managed to pull ahead, and just barely win in the end. Semi finals ended up being Alix up against Kagami, and Marinette against Marc.

“What are we playing for, anyway?” Alix always wanted a prize. 

“Bragging right?” Kagami tried. She had only been a part of the class for one year, but she knew as well as anyone, they really loved their bragging rights. 

“Bragging rights for who? This is a graduation party. Three of you are headed to America, Adrien’s off to London, and the rest of us are getting pretty spread out through the city.” Marc pointed out. Everyone was pretty silent after that. 

“Bragging rights in the group chat?” Marinette suggested.

“Is there even a group chat with all of us in it?” Rose frowned. Marinette pulled out her phone, and started to make one. “I know there are ones of all the clubs and activities, but don’t think we actually have a  _ real _ class group chat.”

“I’m on it Rose, don’t worry.” Suddenly, everyone got a notification at the same time.  _ Marinette Dupain-Cheng added 15 people to the group chat _ , Which was followed by  _ Creator had locked modifications _ . 

**Adrien Agreste** : ‘ _ Yeet Skeet MOthers and Fuckers _ ’

**Max Kanté** : ‘ _ Adrien why _ ’

Everyone laughed, but put their phones back in their pockets to finish the tournament. 

Alix just barely beat Kagami, who looked more betrayed than a kicked puppy, and Marinette had to restrain herself from cheating to win against Marc. 

“I’ll be back for you, Dupain-Cheng. I will kick your ass some day.” He dramatically waved his hand in the air, and everyone giggled at his villain impression.

“You wish.” She retorted. Nino started the last round, and nearly half of the class joined him in yelling a dramatic countdown to the start. 10/10 by Maître Gims started playing, and they started the game.

* * *

  
  


Later that night, Marinette laid in her bed, messing with her phone. 

_ Creator changed ‘Adrien Agreste’ to ‘Tall Blond and Handsome’ _

**Tall Blond and Handsome** :  _ Oh hell yeah. _

**Alya Cesairé** :  _ Marinette I swear to god- _

_ Creator changed ‘Juleka Couffaine’ to ‘Lit as Shit mate’ _

**Lit as Shit mate** :  _ I- _

_ Creator changed ‘Chloe Dupain-Cheng’ to ‘Bumblebitch Crinklesquares’ _

**Bumblebitch Crinklesquares** :  _ You have got to be kidding me. _

**Tall Blond and Handsome** :  _ hahaha isn’t that the british actor? _

**Marinette Dupain-Cheng** :  _ ya it is. _

_ Creator changed ‘Sabrina Raincomprix’ to ‘Go! Hench!’ _

**Go! Hench!** :  _ What is this supposed to mean??? _

Mrinette couldn’t believe that Sabrina didn’t know that it was a Phineas and Ferb reference. The utter betrayal.

_ Creator changed ‘Alya Cesairé’ to ‘I will die with my phone in my hand’ _

**I will die with my phone in my hand:** _Ok but like why is this true though._

_ Creator changed ‘Nino Lahiffe’ to ‘DJPurpleGrapeBoi’ _

**DJPrupleGrapeBoi** :  _ I have literally never said this out loud before. Why. _

_ Creator changed ‘Marinette Dupain-Cheng’ to ‘The Hottest Dupain-Cheng’ _

**Bumblebitch Crinklesquares** _ : Ok bullshit. _

**Kagami Dupain-Cheng** :  _ I second the bullshit. _

**The Hottest Dupain-Cheng** :  _ Suck my ass you two _

**Tall Blond and Handsome** _ : Language. Damn. _

_ Creator changed ‘Ivan Bruel’ to ‘Road Work Ahead???’ _

**Road Work Ahead???** :  _???? _

_ Creator changed ‘Mayléne Hapréle’ to ‘Uh, yeah, I sure hope it does.’ _

**Road Work Ahead???** _ : Oh, now I get it. _

**Uh, yeah, I sure hope it does** :  _ Awe, this is cute. We got a couples name. _

**Lit as Shit mate** : _ I was laughing really hard and Luka asked why and I told him about the group chat and he wants in. Do we make him an honorary member? _

T **he Hottest Dupain-Cheng** :  _ Yeah hold on give me a minute. I’m busy. _

**Marc Anciel** :  _ Is anyone else really nervous for what she comes up with? _

**The Hottest Dupain-Cheng** :  _ I’m getting to you, hold on. _

_ Creator changed ‘Rose Lavillant’ to ‘Awe fuck. I can’t believe you’ve done this’ _

**Awe fuck. I can’t believe you’ve done this** :  _ Literally why  _

**The Hottest Dupain-Cheng** :  _ Because. _

_ Creator changed ‘Max Kanté’ to ‘Genius Billionaire Playboy Philanthropist’ _

**Genius Billionaire Playboy Philanthropist** :  _ Oh hell yeah. _

**Tall Blond and Handsome** _ : Awe, why don’t I get to be Iron Man? _

**I will die with my phone in my hand** _ : You’re not NEARLY smart enough to be Iron Man.  _

_ Creator changed ‘Lê Chiên Kim’ to ‘WHO wants lasagna’ _

**WHO wants lasagna** :  _ You know what, not as bad as it could have been. _

**The Hottest Dupain-Cheng** :  _ Thanks you. _

**Road Work Ahead???** :  _ hey nino, did I leave my sweatshirt at your house? _

_ Creator changed ‘Nathaniel Kurtzburg’ to ‘Renegayed’ _

**Renegayed** :  _ Ok, you know what-  _

**Marc Anciel** :  _ *is waiting* _

**The Hottest Dupain-Cheng** :  _ Ok fine, I’ll do you next. _

_ Creator changed ‘Marc Anciel’ to ‘Whoooooooosh with eight O’s’ _

**Whoooooooosh with eight O’s** :  _ Wait no what the- _

**DJPurpleGrapeBoi** :  _ Yeah, I can bring it to you tomorrow. Or you can come get it whenever you want. I don’t really care. _

_ Creator changed ‘Kagami Dupain-Cheng’ to ‘American Ninja WarriorTM’ _

**American Ninja WarriorTM** :  _ I’m literally not even american _

**The Hottest Dupain-Cheng** :  _ No, but you're a ninja. _

**American Ninja WarriorTM** :  _ I fence?!!!! _

_ Creator changed ‘Alix Kubdel’ to ‘Tha Muthaphukkin SUN bruh.’ _

**Tha Muthaphukkin SUN bruh** :  _ why am I the sun????? _

**Uh, yeah, I sure hope it does** :  _ Because you bring light to our lives, Alix. _

**Tha Muthaphukkin SUN bruh** :  _ Bullshit. I hate everyone _ .

**The Hottest Dupain-Cheng** :  _ Is that everyone? Am I missing anyone? _

**Lit as Shit mate** :  _ Luka is patiently waiting. _

_ The Hottest Dupain-Cheng added Luka Couffaine _

**Luka Couffaine** _ : Appreciate it. _

_ Creator changed ‘Luka Couffaine’ to ‘play me a song oh piano man’ _

**play me a song oh piano man** :  _ what the hell mari. _

  
  



	4. Chapter 4

Chloé got a job at a nearby coffee shop to start buying things they would need for Uni. Kagami had started making lists of things they would need to live on their own, i.e. towels, over-the-counter medicines, dishware, and other sorts of things. She had started working as an employee at an animal shelter she had previously spent lots of time volunteering at.

Of course, Marinette’s parents had offered them both jobs working at the bakery, but both girls felt as though they needed to go somewhere else not only to practice getting real jobs, but also the bakery was Marinette’s place. It was special to her, and they didn’t want to step on any toes working around her. 

Alya tagged along on a lot of their shopping trips, giving her personal advice, and also acting like a mediator for the prone-to-fight siblings.

“If you all are going to fight over the color of towles you want, just get two or three of your own towles, and get them in different colors.” She grumbled and nine towels ended up in the shopping cart. Eventually, they just all three got their own carts. Marinette’s cart was filled with mostly blue and pink things, Kagami’s mostly red, and Chloés mostly yellow.

“Ok, you don’t all three need to get a different soap dispenser.” Alya un-jammed her own shopping cart from their whole pile, and scowled at her friends. “One soap dispenser per sink. You do know how many sinks your place has, don’t you?”

“One bathroom sink, one kitchen sink.” Chloe relayed. 

“Then get the blue seashell one for your bathroom, and the pink plain one for your kitchen.” Alya sighed. “You don't all need your own advil, either.” She hurriedly pointed out as she noticed Marinette eyeing the pharmacy section. 

* * *

“I have no idea how we’re going to get all this across the atlantic to Gotham.” Marinette grumbled as she looked at the growing pile of college supplies on her sisters’ floor. 

“Do you ever think we should have waited until we actually, you know,  _ got there _ to buy all of this stuff?” Chloé mumbled. Marinette shook her head.

“Buying it all here is not only cheaper, but also gives us an idea of how much money we need. It’s good.”

“Still doesn’t tell us how we  _ get it there _ .” Kagami flopped herself down on her bottom bunk. “Bringing it all with us on the plane is going to be  _ mad _ expensive.” 

“Mail it, sweetie.” Their mother appeared in the doorway. “Ship it all there, and the university should either hold onto it for you, or just bring it right into your room and leave it there for you.”

“Oh.” Kagami frowned at the large pile. “But isn’t shipping all of that going to be expensive? Ceramic plates can get pretty heavy.”

“Of course it is, dear, but that’s what parents are for. To help you out with things.” The idea of a helping parent was still pretty foreign to her. She was used to being told to figure it out for herself, to help herself, and that she couldn’t get help from anyone or she would be seen as weak.

“Oh. Ok.” 

* * *

  
  


The last time Ladybug brought the fox necklace and the turtle bracelet to patrol was mid-July. 

“I think it’s time you can keep them. Permanently.” She encouraged them. Rena Rouge honestly giggled when she said that, which made Ladybug laugh, which made Rena Rouge laugh even harder. Carapace and Chat Noir just watched them, having no idea no idea what was so funny. 

“Remember, if anything happens while I’m away, I can always use the teleportation miraculous to get here in seconds.” She reminded them.

“Yes, Ladybug. You have said that about thirty times this summer.” Carapace had to refrain from rolling his eyes at her, but it didn’t go unnoticed. 

“Hey. Respect your Guardian.” Chat playfully went to knock Carapace off his feet, but Carapace had learned to anticipate it. He jumped, and Chat ended up stabbing Ladybug in the shins. 

“Ow!” She had been busy looking out over the roof she hadn’t noticed. “You dumb fucking Chat, maybe you should take your own advice and respect me!” She threw her yoyo so it grabbed him around the waist as he tried to run away, and yanked him onto his ass. He fell so dramatically he knocked the two new heroes over, Rena landing on top of Carapace, starting a four-way war between them. “Last one to the Eiffel Tower is a loser!” someone yelled, maybe it was herself, and they took off.

Ladybug ran in the direction she knew was the most obvious, even if it was through alleyways, but had to duck so she didn’t take a Chat Noir baton to the face. That slowed her down just enough for Rena Rouge to lunge past her, and she tripped her with her yoyo. But as soon as she ran past it, the illusion disappeared. 

She leapt up towards the rooftops once again, and threw her yoyo so she could swing about like spider-man. She was quite proud of herself for getting the spider-man posture right. Maybe the next hero she could imitate was Robin, and the grappling hook. 

She raced Carapace to the tower, Rena Rouge and Chat Noir nowhere to be seen. Carapace started using the rungs to climb faster, but Ladybug waved at him as she threw her yoyo up to the top and zoomed upwards.

“Took you long enough.” Ladybug jumped as she heard Rena Rouge behind her.

“LITERALLY HOW?” Carapace asked as his head peeped out over the edge of the railing. 

“I just ran really fucking fast. That’s how.”

“Looks like Chat’s the last one…” She turned and saw a certain black-clad blond attempting to sneak up from behind them.

“Wouldn’t it be a shame if something terrible were to happen right now.” Rena mumbled, and Ladybug grinned as she called for a lucky charm. A bucket full of water balloons. Rena took the other side, and they set it on the railing over his head.

“Three… two...” They dumped it over the side, and it rained water balloons down on Chat Noir’s head. He shrieked, and jumped backwards off of the metal beam he was perched on. Ladybug caught him with her yoyo, and reeled him in like a fish on a fishing pole. The three successful heroes laughed at a soaked scowling Chat Noir, and headed home for the day.

* * *

Marinette opened her phone to see messages in the group chat.

**Lit as Shit mate** : _ not to expose you all on main, but had anyone actually started planning Chloé’s birthday??? NO one has contacted me about anything… _

**Awe fuck. I can’t believe you’ve done this** :  _ whoops. _

**Bumblebitch Crinklesquares** :  _ I can’t believe you asshole forgot about me _ .

**play me a song oh piano man** :  _ In their defense Chloé, you used to hate having us around. _

**Bumblebitch Crinklesquares** :  _ ok but like you have a point tho :( _

She decided to answer them,

**The Hottest Dupain-Cheng** :  _ bold of you all to assume I don’t have the whole classes next five birthdays planned out. _

**DJPurpleGrapeBoi** :  _ Marinette to the rescue to save all of our asses. _

**The Hottest Dupain-Cheng** :  _ What else am I good for? _

**I will die with my phone in my hand** :  _ Not much, honestly ;) _

**The Hottest Dupain-Cheng** :  _ Ok, you know what, fuck you too. Your birthday is cancelled. No Dupain-Cheng birthday cake for you. _

**I will die with my phone in my hand** :  _ Nooooo not my sweet Dupain-Cheng cakeeeeee _

**Go! Hench!** :  _ *Kim K voice* It’s what she deserves! _

  
  


“Are you sure you want to do this?” Ladybug asked. Chat Noir was sitting in an old abandoned church, where he had been sitting for several hours. 

“Ladybug, I don’t really have a choice.” He grumbled. 

“You always have a choice.” She argued. 

“Really?” He asked sarcastically, “And then what? I tell you no, and then you have to fight me for it?”

“Yeah your right, that does sound pretty stupid.” They both giggled, and then went back to being silent. “But you can take as long as you want if you need to.” 

“Nah.” He called Plagg in, and Ladybug scrunched her eyes shut. She knew she could open them, but it was mostly out of habit.

“You can look, if you want.” She heard his familiar voice, and slowly opened her eyes to see Adrien sitting in front of her. She dropped her box she was holding, and he frowned.

“That, bad huh?” She jumped from where she was sitting, and picked him up in a hug. “Uh, M’Lady?”

“I’m sorry.” She didn’t let go. 

“Sorry about what?” He had somewhat of a gist of what she was sorry about. 

“I’m sorry I made you turn your own father over to the police. I’m sorry I didn’t take your feelings more seriously. I’m sorry I let you do dumb things without bothering to check on you.” She continued to list the things she was sorry about, but he was so confused that he didn’t hear her call Tikki in halfway through a sentence and keep going with her list of things she was sorry for. By the time he managed to get her to stop talking, he looked down to see Marinette clinging to him like she was scared to let go. She probably was.

“I’m sorry too.” He hugged her back after the initial shock set in, and rested his face on the top of her head. She smelled nice. 

“What are you sorry about? You have nothing to be sorry for.” She wiped at her face.

“No, I do.” He insisted. “I’m sorry I thought you were coming into school late because you were lazy. I’m sorry I thought you didn’t care about your friends when you cancelled plans last minute. I’m sorrier than anyone else can be.”

“Adrien, that’s a dumb thing to be sorry about.” She sniffed.

“No, it isn’t.” He resisted the urge to pick her up like a child and hold onto her forever. “I feel like I’ve betrayed you. And I am sorry.” He took a deep breath, “I’m sorry I ever doubted you for a single second.”

“Adrien, you are dumb as hell.” She sniffled again, but this time she giggled. 

“Dumb? Why am I dumb?” He loosened his grip on her a little, and she leaned back to look up at him.

“I feel guilty because of things that emotionally hurt you. You feel guilty because of things I  _ tried  _ to make you all believe. I wanted you to think I was coming in late because I’m lazy, or because I came up with dumb excuses to go fight an akuma battle. I made the choice to let you all believe what you wanted to believe.  _ You had no choice _ that your father did those things.” He considered what she had said, and squeezed her tighter as a result. 

“You had no choice that he did those things either.” He picked her up, and she instinctively wrapped her legs around his waist for weight support. He went to lean backwards on the statue behind them, but apparently the statue was hollow because before either of them knew it they were on the floor and the statue was smashed to pieces. Marinette rolled onto her back and started to laugh. He watched her, dumbfounded that he had just dropped her and she would just  _ laugh _ like that, but she laughed so hard she started to choke, and began coughing instead. When she finally got her breath back, she started to giggle. He could only watch as she repeated the process two more times before he offered her a hand up, and she took it.

“You know Adrien, I think we’re both pretty stupid.” She mumbled as he carried her out on his back.

“And why’s that?”

“You were so busy pining after Ladybug, you didn’t notice me trying to  _ badly _ flirt with you for, like,  _ four _ years.”

“Seriously?” He twisted his head to look at her, and she nodded.

“Oh yeah, it was terrible. Half the time I wouldn’t even actually flirt, I would just stare at you, or pretend to not even notice you at all in fear you would find out I like you and tell me to fuck off forever.”

“No way.” Adrien smiled as he walked down the road, wondering what life would have been like if they had actually ended up together. That would have been chaotic as hell. And somehow probably very toxic.

“Yeah.” 

“So why did you stop?” He was genuinely curious.

“I realised pining after someone while having no intention of actually going anywhere was really stupid, and I decided to start looking into dating other people.” She shrugged. “You know, now that I think about it, it was around the same time Chat Noir suddenly stopped making weird attempts to woo Ladybug, too.”

“I realised having her as a friend was more important to me than trying to have something I couldn’t. I didn’t want to risk losing her.” He confessed, shrugging.

“I didn’t want to risk losing you either, chaton.” She whispered, and he just smiled at the ground. 

“How long until they remember we exist?” She heard behind her, and she jumped, which was not good, seeing as she wasn’t on the ground. She had just kicked Adrien in the stomach.

“Plagg what the hell.” He grumbled, and rubbed his stomach where Marinette had just kicked it. 

“Tikki why aren’t you in my pocket?”

  
  


* * *

  
  
  


Three days later, over half the class sat in the Paris airport at six in the morning. Alix had work, Meyléne was already moved into her new university and couldn’t make it because she had an 8am class, Kim was way too far away, and obviously Lila didn’t show. She hadn’t talked to anyone since graduation. 

“It’s so nice of all of you guys to be here to say goodbye.” Marinette smiled at the pile of exhausted bodies that piled comfortably on top of each other in the miserable plastic airport chairs. 

“Marinette, you’ve been there for us through just about everything since we were kids. Showing up at the airport when you leave is the least we could do for you.” Rose smiled at her. Juleka mumbled in agreement, her eyes mostly closed, as she put her head in Rose’s lap and her feet on Sabrina’s shoulders. No one mentioned it. 

“I will not miss having my ass kicked so easily.” Nino teased her.

“Oh, I agree.” Max grumbled. “With you gone, I can finally have my highscore back.” Marinette punched him in the shoulder, and he scowled with fake betrayal. 

“Bold of you to assume I won't start playing online RPG games and kick your ass internationally.”

Adrien pulled her into the tightest hug, and whispered into her ear,

“I’m going to miss you, M’Lady.”

“I’m going to miss you too, Chaton. But we need this break more than anything right now.” She pulled away from him, and started to tease him, “Hey, where did your ring go? You haven’t taken that ring off in nearly six years.” He rolled his eyes.

“A beautiful lady needed it much more than I did.” She did her best not to roll her eyes back. The class hadn’t noticed most of this encounter seeing as they were nearly all asleep, but Chloé definitely raised an eyebrow at the occasion.

“Oh, you are  _ so _ on.” Max scoffed. Marinette grinned, and the girls hugged all of her classmates goodbye one last time before heading to security to get checked in. 

“Bye Mamon! Bye Papa! Goodbye everyone!” They all said at the last checkpoint, and headed into the waiting zone to board. The three Dupain-Cheng girls were finally all alone, and headed off to University.

Luke texted her a goodbye while they waited to board, with a promise Alix would say hi when she got out of work.

  
  



	5. Chapter 5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> THEY FINALLY MEET

Marinette sat in the middle seat, her head on Chloé’s lap near the window, and her legs were curled up against Kagami who was reading a book in the aisle seat. She slept most of the ride, but for what little of it she was awake, she sketched a matching suit and dress.

“Looks good, Nette.” Chloé had picked up on Nino’s nickname for her

“Thanks, Chlo.” She mumbled, barely able to keep her eyes open, and drifted back to sleep again. 

* * *

“Hey you.” She opened her eyes to find Kagami’s were inches away from hers. “We’re here.” It took her a second to register what that meant.

“That means move, bitch.” Chloé teased as she gently dumped her onto the floor. She was instantly pinned between the seats. Stuck.

“Ow, that hurt.” She rubbed her head, and then finally stood up. Kagami pushed her way into the aisle, and grabbed their overhead luggage from the bin.

“This one’s yours,” Kagami handed Marinette her old purple Nike ‘swag bag’, “And this one’s you,” She handed Chloé her Marc Jacobs bag, and Marinette recognized it as one she had stolen while sneaking back into Chloé’s room for her clothes as Ladybug the day after she had officially moved in. “And finally me.” She pulled out a cute bag Marinette assumed she had gotten while on one of her trips to Tokyo since she had no idea what the brand was. She had snuck into her house as Ladybug for clothes and objects as well. 

Marinette stuffed her sketchbook into her carry-on, and the trio made their way off the plane and to baggage claim. 

“Ah, it’s me.” Chloe reached for the bright red Supreme suitcase, which was quickly followed by a purple suitcase with a white kitty on it (Kagami) and a plain black one with flowers stitched onto it (Marinette).

They got through customs with their students' visas, passed through security, and made their way to the university. 

It was Thursday, September third, the official move-in day, five days before school began, so they were met with a guide at multiple places. 

Several booths were set up by the very front entrance they came in through, a few scattered throughout the campus, pointing people to different buildings, and one in the actual building they moved in to to show them which room was theirs.

“Ah, what’s your name?” He spoke directly to Marinette, not thinking that they were together. 

“Marinette Dupain-Cheng.”

“Ah, Dupain-Cheng that sounds familiar,” He spoke as he went through a list on his tablet. “Ah, there’s three people by that name. Which one are you, again?”

“I’m Marinette, this one’s Chloe, and this is Kagami.” He froze, and glanced back and forth between them. 

“You don’t look like triplets.”

“We aren’t.” Chloé grumbled. 

“They have different birthdays.” Marinette tried to be patient with him, but there was only so much patience you can have after that long-ass plane ride.

“Ah.” The man turned pink as he pointed them in the right direction. 

* * *

They found the boxes they had mailed over in a neat pile in the living room of their new place. 

“I really hope nothing broke.” Kagami muttered as she ditched the suitcase to start to unpile and open boxes.

Marinette picked the room closest to the front door, and Cloe took the one next to her. That left Kagami with the one next to the bathroom, on the other side of the room.

Marinette set her suitcase down on her bed, but then went out to help Kagami with the boxes. Before she sat down, however, she picked up Kagami’s suitcase off the middle of the floor and dragged it into the dark empty room. She set it down on the sheetless bed, and headed back out into the living room. 

Kagami was just opening boxes, pulling things out, and folding up the boxes to put away until they needed them to ship everything back at the end of the year.

Chloé was organizing the things Kagami was pulling out, and putting them into four different piles. One for each of them, and one for miscellaneous. 

Marinette brought the towels, which had been washed already and sent in a bag so they were already clean, into the bathroom closet, and then trudged back out again. She grabbed all the things that had come out of the medicine box and hauled them into the mini kitchen. She pulled open the cabinet over the microwave, and started putting them away. 

She headed back to the piles that were growing too fast for her to keep up with.

She took her bed sheets, and just tossed them into her room. She basketball-tossed Chloe’s into her room, and slid Kagami’s across the floor into hers. 

She put all of her backpack supplies into her bag of the time being, making sure to make a note that she still needed to wash her water bottle first, and wound up her laptop charger to stick with it too. 

They got a dry-erase calendar that could stick to walls like a movable sticker, and she wasted no time pulling it out and sticking it to one of the cupboards. 

She dug the collapsable storage out of their packages, and started to assemble her own. When Kagami finally finished opening and emptying all the boxes, she and Chloé finally helped with the ‘putting things away’ part.

The pencil sharpener went on the kitchen counter. Spare blankets went in the bathroom closet. Air freshener sat on the dinner table. The battery clocks went on their nightstands, but a large glowing one went near the bathroom almost like as if it were a night-light. The laundry bags that they brought to the laundromat went under the bathroom sink. The dryer sheets (they waited to buy detergent until they got here) went in a drawer under the bathroom counter. 

She hadn’t brought any of her sewing supplies with her, they said in the information packets it would be unnecessary since she would get assigned her own tools. To use as she pleased.

The trash can went in the kitchen. The trash bags went under the kitchen sink. They had refrained from buying too much cleaning supplies, afraid that the shipping company would refuse to send it in case it burst in the air or something. 

Then they just had to put their clothes away. The closet was smaller than Marinette would like, but she could manage. She was just glad she had mentioned collapsable storage so that she now had several large buckets to store her more oftenly used clothes in the closet, and her nicer clothes could go under the bed. She went to go wash her water bottle while she still felt in a productive mood, and realised she had nothing to wash it with. And even if she did, they didn’t have a dish drying rack.

“You still got that list of supplies to buy on Saturday, Gami?” She yelled. 

“Yeah.” Kagami yelled from the bathroom. 

“Add a drying rack to it.” She yelled.

“Noted.”

“Someone help me with these sheets, they might be, like, an inch and a half too small.” Chloé yelled. Marinette headed in, and they both tugged at the same time. It didn’t rip, but it damn sure felt like it was about to. 

“I guess I might need help with mine then, if we got the same size.”

* * *

That night, Marinette laid awake looking at the ceiling, wondering if everything had been worth it. She considered texting the group chat, but then remembered the six hour time difference.

“Don’t overthink things too hard, Marinette.” Tikki said quietly from the other side of her pillow.

“Tikki, we really need to be careful about living in student housing and people seeing you now. Living this close to people, they could hear you. Or even worse, see you.” Marinette warned her. Tikki shrugged, and Marinette pulled out her phone to distract herself. Halfway across the world, at three am, thirteen people got the same message:

_ Creator changed ‘Tall Blond and Handsome’ to ‘Absolute Himbo’  _

* * *

She woke up the next morning and checked her business email. Someone had bought the $500 pink knee-length silk dress with the thick black bow on the back. She excitedly messaged her parents instructions to send and handle the package, since they had promised to sell the one’s she had over the summer for her so she wouldn’t have to bring her entire inventory to America just to mail them wherever.

She took it down off the site, since she had yet to figure out how to automatically have something removed when it sold. She would have to have Max help her out with that when she went back over Christamas break.

The next was mostly filled with guided tours by older students and ‘meet your teachers’ events. 

At lunch, she knew it would be nearly dinner time there, and decided to message the group chat,

**The Hottest Dupain-Cheng** :  _ Good evening, mah bois. _

**Absolute Himbo** :  _ Good evening to you too, silly goose. _

**Absolute Himbo** :  _ maRINETTE WHAT DID YOU DO TO ME???!! _

**I will die with my phone in my hand** :  _ asdfghjkl Literally dying. also, Good evening. _

**Absolute Himbo** :  _ MARINETTE CHANGE ME BACK! _

**play me a song oh piano man** : _ Good evening! It’s a lovely day, and Marinette is a horrible goose! _

**Awe fuck. I can’t believe you’ve done this** :  _ Marinette? A horrible goose? She would neeeeevvvvveeerrrr _ .

**The Hottest Dupain-Cheng** :  _ Thank you, Rose. _

**Absolute Himbo** :  _ MARINETTTEEEEEEEE _

She went back to paying attention to what was in front of her, and she realized she had lost her sisters.

**The Hottest Dupain-Cheng** :  _ Guys, where the fuck did you go??? Did you leave me behind???  _

**Whoooooooosh with eight O’s** :  _ Did you seriously get lost on your first day, Marinette _ ?

**The Hottest Dupain-Cheng** :  _ fuck off, Marc. You couldn’t find your way out of a paper bag if Nath didn’t help you _ .

Eventually, they were found sitting under a tree, talking to a lively-looking green haired kid dressed in all black.

“Hi! My name is Zoo, you must be Marinette!” The young person, who had to be around their age smiled brightly up at her. She had a feeling she should ask about their pronouns.

“Hi Zoo, can I ask you what your pronouns are?” Zoo clapped their hands excitedly, and nodded.

“Thank you for asking! My pronouns are they and them. I appreciate it when people ask instead of assuming.” Marinette smiled at them. 

“I said I was giving tours to the art students today, and they mentioned you were in that category! They seem to be quite proud of it, too.” Neither of them would meet her eyes when she raised an eyebrow at them, but went back to talking to Zoo. 

“So what class would you say is the hardest?” She asked.

“Ooh, def calculus.” Marinette frowned at them, and they quickly corrected themself,

“Sorry, sometimes I speak in shorthand. Def is is short for definitely.”

“So you’re not actually around the age of 18, then, are you?” Zoo laughed.

“My age is commonly miscalculated since I seem to have such a baby face.” They walked as they talked, headed to find a place Zoo recommended for food, discussing everything from local pizza enthusiasts to what the LGBT scene was like at Gotham University.

* * *

The next day, Saturday, there were a few club meetings they attended, but when they were done, they headed to a nearby superstore to look for dish soap. 

Marinette grabbed bleach and Clorox wipes while they were at it. And a scrubbing brush. And, of course, the drying rack. And some sponges. And some windex.

“Jeez Nette, we’re not made of money.” Chloé of all people grumbled. 

“We need some laundry detergent, too.” Kagami sighed. Chloé took a deep breath, and stalked off to find some laundry detergent. Her sisters followed her. 

She angrily read the labels of three or four before she frustratedly set them all down. 

“What’s up, Chlo?” Marinette frowned.

“I’m struggling to read these scientific english words.” She growled. “Hey! You!” She pointed to a guy who looked to be a few years older than them at the end of the aisle. “Do you speak french?”

“Uh, oui?” The guy responded hesitantly.

“ _ Can you tell me what the actual fuck these stupid labels say? I have an allergy to a chemical found in Tide, but I can’t remember which one it is. Would you know?” _ The guy, who somehow managed to understand her angry garbled french, quickly pulled up a webpage on his phone, and handed her a bottle of Snuggle.

“ _ This one shouldn’t bother you. _ ” He smiled at her, and she grinned in response.

“ _ Thank you so much. _ ” They headed towards the checkout, and Marinette paid for all the supplies.

* * *

Sunday was boring as hell, but that was good since Marinette spent most of it asleep. But that became a problem when night time came, because then she wasn’t tired at all. 

She considered hitting the gym, but decided to just climb to the roof instead. She brought one of her textbooks with her, as well as a yoga mat.

She set the yoga mat down on the cold cement roof, and propped open her textbook. She was wearing a hoodie, but it was still early september and it wasn’t actually that cold. The only problem seemed to be her flashlight not being bright enough. 

She read for nearly two hours before someone scared her.

“You know being out late at night in Gotham is a death wish, right?” She looked up to see a brightly colored Robin standing with his arms crossed on the edge of the building. 

“Maybe I have one, you don’t know.” She rolled her eyes, and went back to her book. “Got a brighter flashlight? This one seems to need new batteries.”

“Maybe it’s a sign from the gods that you need to  _ go the hell back inside _ to get new ones.” He growled. She just smiled at him, and leaned back against the air conditioning unit.

“Every person you meet is fighting a battle you know nothing about. Brad Meltzer, I think.” She quoted. 

“What  _ about _ Brad Meltzer?” Robin grumbled.

“He knew that all people are complex. All people are deeper than you realize.” She stood up, walked towards him, and mockingly imitated his stance. “You think the people here really want to draw my blood?” She challenged him.

“Yes.” He thought it was obvious.

“They should be so lucky.” She grinned at him hollowly before sitting back down on her mat, and turning her flashlight back on.

* * *

Monday was Labor Day. There was no official school, but a lot of clubs met up for fun. Marinette joined a gaming club, and quickly proved she was _no one_ to mess with. 

Chloé and Kagami found a nice gsa club that Zoo had recommended they join, and they found them sitting in a big comfy chair sipping on a mug of tea.

“Glad you could make it!” Zoo always seemed to be excited about something. “Always happy to see new faces around!”

“Hi.” Kagami spoke quietly as they took seats around the fairly large circle. 

“Alright, let's all go around in a circle, say our name, our pronouns, and if we feel like sharing our sexuality we can do that too.”

“Hi, my name is Sam, my pronouns are they/them, and I’m asexual.”

“Hi, I’m Kaz, my pronouns according to the streets of New York are bitch and asshole, my gender is little rat bastard, and I’m sexually attracted to kitchen tools.” Zoo rolled their eyes.

“Try again, Kaz.” They sighed.

“Fine. My name is Kaz, my pronouns are primarily they/them but I genuinely don’t give a fuck if you use he or she, I identity as a non-binary pansexual.” 

“Congratulations, you have done something acceptable.” Zoo took a sip of their tea.

“I’m Emily, my pronouns are she/her, and I’m lesbian as hell.” Chloé admired her ability to somehow look like every lesbian stereotype all at once. 

“I’m Kagami, my pronouns are she/her, I suck at english, and I’m bisexual.”

“What a mood.”

“Kaz you speak seven languages and English is your first.” Emily frowned.

“That doesn’t mean I’m good at it.” Kagami snorted, and Kaz gave her a high five.

“I’m Chloé, my pronouns are she/her, and I identity as pansexual.” A few more people around the circle went, but Chloé was having a mild panic attack, and didn’t notice. She would have to ask them again later. 

* * *

  
  


Damian had his stupid calculous class on Tuesdays. He already fucking knew calculous, why the hell did he have to take this dumb class? Why did he even have to be here at all?

He could have just run the Wayne company’s finances as a hobby for fun without having to get a stupid business degree, but nooooo his father had to make him get this degree for ‘legal purposes’. Bullshit. If they got into legal trouble, he could just get them out of it. Simple as that. 

He walked into the classroom to see that people were sitting in pairs at tables, and he already knew this was going to end badly. 

He headed to the back of the classroom, and found one table at the very back where he could sit by himself. 

He watched the door of the classroom, and recognized a girl that walked in. It was the girl from two nights before. The one with the ego who said she could take on a villain. How stupid.

But then she started to walk back towards him, and he sank down in his chair. He mentally screamed when she sat down next to him. 

_ No!!! Go away!!! _ He yelled in his head, hoping she would _sOmEhOw_ get the message and leave him alone. But nope. She just stayed sitting where she had been. 

“Good morning, class.” The professor started. “I hope you all like where you're sitting, because guess what: You’re going to be stuck there for the remainder of the year!”

_ No!!! I want her to move!! _ He mentally shrieked, hoping someone would make her move. But alas, nothing happened. 

“You will be using the same person for all your group projects, so if you have complaints you better have some damn good ones.”

“There are group projects in math?” The girl next to him whispered, not necessarily talking to him, just out loud in general. He shared her confusion. 

“In this class, you will be learning about problem solving from context.” He continued to ramble on about how math group projects actually worked, and the more he talked the more sense he made. 

“God, I wish I spoke better english.” She didn’t seem to be talking to him, just talking in general and that irritated him. But he guessed it would irritate him more if she tried to be friends. 

“Now, I suppose it would be a good time to do roll.” The professor sat down at his desk, and started yelling out names, and writing their names down on a seating chart as they responded. “Marinette Dupain-Cheng?”

“Present.” She announced in her cute french accent. So that was her name. He would have to use Drake’s computer to run a background on her. See where her ego came from. 

  
  


* * *

He didn’t have her in any other class the rest of the day, and that was a relief. But he had her in his english class the next day. This class was in a much larger room than the calculous one, and she barely even looked at him before sitting next to him. 

“Marinette Dupain-Cheng?” The professor called out as she did roll call for the first day. 

“Here.” The professor laughed.

“My goodness, how many of you kids are there?” What was that supposed to mean?

“Three, Ma’am.” Huh. So she had sibling’s? Cousins? Was she a triplet?

“Damian Wayne?” She got down to his name after nearly seven minutes of calling names out in the huge room.

“Here.” He scowled. The girl snorted. “What?” He snapped.

“Nothing, I just accidentally sat next to you two days in a row.” She smiled over at him. He did not return it. “I thought it was funny.” He didn’t respond, and she just shrugged. 

* * *

He checked the roof of her building that night. It was out of the way of his normal Patrol, and switched his coms to avoid people asking where he was going. 

Sure enough, she was sitting in the dark on her roof. Her flashlight was much brighter, and he assumed she had gotten a hold on some new batteries. She seemed to be working on her homework when her phone lit up. He snuck up behind her, in an attempt to see who she was talking to. But she quickly shut it off, and looked directly up at him.

“You know I have ears, right?” She raised an eyebrow, and he frowned as he jumped off the box he had crawled on top of. 

“Disappointing.” He crossed his arms, and stood on the corner of the building for a quick escape. 

“So, didn't get enough of an excuse last time? Did you come to challenge me to a fight, or something?” She patted the roof next to her, and he had no intention of sitting down.

“Why do you sit out here, even though it’s dangerous?” He asked. She gave him a softer smile.

“My childhood bedroom was the attic of an old bakery that my parents owned. It had a small balcony, and I used to go and watch all the people from it.” She shrugged. “I guess I just miss being up high and seeing everything.” 

“This building isn’t even that tall.” He pointed out.

“I know. But it’s something.” He snorted, and then disappeared.

* * *

  
  
  


On Thursday, he had some sort of 'intro-to-business’ class. He did not need an intro. He already knew everything. 

Some teachers were supposed to do their roll every class, but several said they would only do it on the first day and then on the day of the final. This was still the first week, so most teachers still did it for the first class. 

“Chloé Dupain-Cheng?” The teacher called. He recognized it was…  _ someone _ related to Marinette, and tried to get a look at her. She was blond. And looked absolutely nothing like Marinette. They had to be cousins, or something. 

* * *

  
  
  
  


Marinette wondered why Damian was so angry all the time. Maybe he lost his cat, or something else highly depressing for the moment but would pass with time. 

She also wondered what the fuck was up up with Robin. Twice in one week he had talked to her. She was pretty sure that was abnormal. Maybe sitting on roofs in Gotham was just _that_ strange, that it required multiple warnings. Maybe she was going to get a warning from Red Robin next. Work her way up the ‘Marinette is an idiot’ ladder until Batman was practically dragging her back to Paris for her bad choices. 

But she appreciated Robin for more reasons than just the fact that he seemed to be checking on her. She missed her roof chats with Chat.

But she didn't have time to wonder too long as she walked into her second math class of the week, which was held on Tuesdays and Thursdays, and sat back down next to him again. Again, he scowled at her, and she just let him be.

She turned her homework in, and sat back down. The teacher was taking a while to start class, so she started designing something for a sewing class that had some strange name. The history of design teacher and the Creation class, that’s what it was called, liked to coordinate their classes so they were doing similar things at the same time, and currently they were looking into ancient greece.

She had finished making the outline of her chiton when Damian poked her in the ribs with his pencil. It was her turn to scowl when she realized he was taking notes. She cursed under her breath, flipped the page, and hurried to copy what was on the board. 

* * *

  
  


So she was an art and design student. He should have seen that coming, given all the callouses on her fingers. 

But the more he watched her work, the more he realized the calluses didn’t actually look like they came from pencils and machine work. They looked like they came from punching things. Eventually, the professor started the class, but she didn’t seem to notice. He started to take notes, but she didn’t look away from her book. He sighed, poked her in the side, and went back to his notes. He resisted the urge to say  _ ‘you owe me one _ ’.

He wondered what the hell she was punching.

* * *

She was working on coloring in her Chiton, thinking about how cool learning how to dip-dye was going to be, and wondering if Robin was going to show up yet again when he did.

“How many times do I have to tell you this is a bad idea?” He frowned at her. 

“I’ll believe you when I die.” She retorted.

“I would like for that _not_ to happen, you-” She could see he was trying not to insult her, but it just made her want to laugh.

“Would you  _ please _ sit down?” She asked. He begrudgingly sat down near her, cross-legged.

“Why?” He asked.

“Because I didn’t tell the whole truth yesterday.” She could see him visibly stiffen, and she started to tell him about Chat Noir. She had to leave out some parts, like how it was hilarious how he had accidentally befriended both sides of her, but other than that she told him everything. About how Chat Noir would visit her on her balcony, and they would talk for hours. About how Chat just somehow managed to now when she was having a bad day (Because he was Adrien. Duh.) 

“Sounds like this hero meant a lot to you.” Robin noted, and she wondered if she sensed a bit of sarcasm. Maybe a sense of superiority. Maybe he had a thing about not making friends with civilians. Yet here he was.

“Yeah. He did.” She went back to her sketch. “And I miss him. I miss being able to climb up on my roof and  _ poof _ he would just show up and make me feel better.” 

* * *

Robin had no idea what to say to this. Like,  _ literally _ what the fuck. She had been friends with Chat Noir? Maybe that was why she was good at fighting, maybe he had taught her things. 

“I guess I caught a bird instead.” She made a sly face at him, and he scoffed. 

“You wish.” He made no attempt to move, however. Clearly, she was in a terrible mental headspace. 

Maybe he should try a more Batman-approach to this. His father was always asking kids what they were doing, being kind to them so they would cooperate. Maybe if he was nice to her she would realise it was dumb to be here and leave.

“What are you working on?” He tried. It was then that he realised he had accidentally turned his coms back on.

“ _ Did he just ask someone what they're working on? _ ” Nightwing came on.

“ _ Holy shit, he did. _ ” Spoiler laughed. He bit his tongue to not respond to them.

“ _ Who the hell is he talking to _ ?” Red Robin asked.

“This is for my design class. In my fashion history class, we’re learning about ancient greek styles.” She seemed very excited to tell him this. He honestly liked the way she lit up to tell him about what she loved. 

“You’re an art student?” He tried to switch it back off, but he couldn’t get to it without making it obvious.

“Yeah. I’ve been sewing since I was about three, and I’ve been making my own clothes since I was in middle school. It’s always been something I find joy in doing.”

“ _ Wow, Demon Spawn likes an Art Student. _ ” Hood crowed. He took advantage of Marinette turning to grab something she had set down on her other side to reach and flip the switch back over. Finally, he could have a decent conversation.

“You know I never did tell you my name.” She frowned. “Let me do this all over again.” He wondered what she was doing, and she stuck a hand out to him. “Hi. I’m Marinette.” He just gave her a blank stare, before realising he wasn’t supposed to know her name.

“Oh. Uh, hi Marinette. I’m Robin.”

  
  



	6. Chapter 6

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Let's peep the socials.

On Friday, Kagami had her first hands-on class. It was set up to be like an observational gym class. In her other classes, they were learning about the effects of different methods on the human body, but in this class they would actually see it in action. Very slowly, and over the course of a long time, but still. It would be worth it.

Most of the first class was just explaining how the course would work, and that they would need to be able to use specific students as a sort of ‘test subject’ for various parts of the class.

“Marinette, you don’t have any morning classes today, right?” She asked her on Monday morning when she had the class for the second time. 

“Uh, no, why?” She asked. They ate cereal for breakfast. 

“I need you to be my lab rat.” Marinette snorted, almost shooting milk out of her nose, and agreed. 

* * *

“You need to join at least  _ some _ kind of club, son.” Bruce sighed as Damian glared at all of siblings in the batcave. They were still teasing him from Friday. 

“Why?” He turned his attention back to his father. “There are plenty of kids who go through college without doing any clubs.”

“Yes, but you want to seem normal.” Bruce tried again. “And to do that, join a club.” Damian grumbled a few more things, something about ‘normal my ass’ and stalked off to his room to mope.

But he had taken Tims laptop with him. 

He started with a simple google search, wondering if the public knew anything about her. Surprisingly, several things popped up. 

One was an article about the designer behind the newest album by some rock artist. He opened it, and scrolled down the page. Sure enough, it was her. He made a mental note of that. 

Then he clicked back.

The next article was about designing a dress for a french pop artist. Along with it were several attached images of the woman, Clara Nightingale, in said dress. Damian had to admit, it was a pretty good design, even if he knew nothing about fashion. But how she managed to get a design on a red carpet at… he checked the date. It was two years ago. She had done this when she was sixteen. 

He went back to the search page and noticed the rectangular box he had somehow managed to miss before. At the top were images of Marinette with several famous musicians at various events, and a few with a familiar blond boy he thought might be a model.

Underneath it was a link to her website. He opened it, and it went to site with a redirection notice and a post made in multiple translations. 

_ Sorry! Due to school starting up again and my moving to a new country, commissions will be temporarily stopped for a few months. If you have a small project or any questions, feel free to contact me _ .

Interesting. He pulled out his phone, and searched the instagram handle at the bottom of the screen. He immediately noticed the blue checkmark next to her name. It looked like today was full of surprises. 

He also noticed the photos all looked professionally taken. He opened the last post.

**OfficialMDC** _In light of going back to school next month, I made a few all-black dresses to commemorate the death of my mental stability_. 

He noticed all the dresses in the post looked a lot like funeral outfits. It was a funny post, while still being quite serious at the same time. The photos were all dramatic, well-done, and gorgeous. 

He scrolled to the next post. 

**OfficialMDC** _Finally graduating, finally able to do some fun work on my own time_.

Attached were three pictures, all of people who were posing as couples in matching outfits. The first picture was of a girl with tan skin in a cream-orange dress that had multiple layers that were obviously all different shades of orange. It had a plunging neckline that had gems towards the bottom. Her partner was wearing a dark blue suit with a lighter blue suit that fit him nicely. He had a white tie, but his lapel was a light cream orange to match the dress. 

The second one was a picture of herself and the blond boy. It was a grayish-midnight blue color that came up to her neck, but then cut off into black lace with small gems scattered throughout that came halfway up her neck, and all the way to her wrist. She was looking up at the blind boy, who was wearing a suit the same color as her dress, a silvery gray tie, and a black lapel. 

The third photo was of two girls. One, who looked a lot like the girl he had seen in his introductory class, was wearing a short yellow sleeveless dress that had black accents on the bottom and the top. The skirt seemed to spread out around her from large layers.The other girl was wearing a long, slim black dress that had black sleeves that reached her collarbone. She had three yellow lines that snaked up her sleeves, and disappeared behind her back. 

He wondered where she was able to buy these materials, they seemed to be fairly expensive. 

He scrolled back to the top, and realised. She had about two million followers, and a link to the website. He went to click it to check it out again in case he missed something, when he noticed under the “follow” button it had ‘ _ followed by dick_grayson and SummertimeSteph as well as 2 others _ ’ He frowned at it, but ignored it as he clicked the link.

Instead of going to the commission page, it actually went to the home page. So he  _ had _ missed something. 

On the sidebar that acted as a directory, he noticed it said ‘ _ formal wear _ ’, ‘ _ street style _ ’, ‘ _ Love Yourself Collection! _ ’, as well as a few other categories. 

Of course she could afford all the expensive materials. The top dress, the orange one, was listed to be sold for nearly seven hundred dollars. The shorter dresses were around five hundred. 

Now he understood why she was checkmarked. She was a designer label, and seemed to be a one-woman crew at that. 

She was a lot more impressive than she seemed to be.

He went back to her page itself, and started to go through her posts again. The third latest thing she had posted was from May.

**OfficialMDC** _If I’m being honest, I’m not happy with where Vegan Leather is right now. The majority of fabrics I’ve found so far are made of terrible plastic materials that release plastic microbes into water systems when put in the washing machine. This isn’t ok. We as a society, as fashion designers, and as the demographic need to come together and make a vegan leather that is not a danger to the environment. Please and thank you_. 

He found himself giving the caption a small smile as he scrolled through the four pictures. 

The first one was of a small girl with short blond hair wearing a seemingly leather jacket dyed pink with black sleeves and black pockets. She seemed to have sewn a black hood, made of normal hoodie material, onto the back. The other pictures were the same jacket, just in different colors.

He found himself distracted as he scrolled through her feed, going on and on until he ran out of posts. Then he went through her tagged feed, seeing posts her friends had made, with pictures of her sketching at the zoo, or sleeping on her desk with a half-finished project next to her, but every once in awhile a picture with a celebrity would pop up and she would be tagged as either the dress, the jacket, or even sometimes album artwork. 

* * *

  
  


Damiam wasn’t scowling at her when she sat down next to him on Tuesday, and she considered that progress. Not that she found it absolutely necessary to befriend everyone, but being not-hated seemed like an _obvious_ thing to want. 

“I found your instagram.” He said when she sat down. That surprised her.

“I didn’t take you for the internet stalking kind.” She pulled her notebooks out of her bag, and the class started.

“I’m not.” Ok, that was obviously not true.

“You are a terrible liar, Damian.” He scowled again, and she felt herself go back to square one.

Halfway through class, she really had to pee. She tried to wait it out by tapping her foot a lot, but she was met with impatient looks.

Eventually, she just left to go to the bathroom. She was so distracted she left her phone face-up on the table.

* * *

Damian had no intention of minding his own business when Marinette left to go to the bathroom. Her phone went off shortly after she left, and it was a message notification. It was quickly followed by more, and he read them off of her screen:

_ Tha Muthaphukkin SUN bruh sent the unnamed group chat: My Katana came in the mail today!!!!  _

_ Tha Muthaphukkin SUN bruh sent the unnamed group chat: Attachment, two images. _

_ play me a song oh piano man sent to the unnamed group chat: Alix, how many swords do you even have??? _

_ Tha Muthaphukkin SUN bruh sent the unnamed group chat: Sword of a lot :) _

_ play me a song oh piano man sent to the unnamed group chat: blocked _

_ Tha Muthaphukkin SUN bruh sent the unnamed group chat: parried. _

He let out a small puff of air in place of a laugh. It was funny, but not that funny. 

* * *

She came back, and picked up her phone to check her messages when she came back. She snorted, and he smirked.

“You read the messages, didn’t you?” She didn’t seem mad. He had expected her to be mad.

“Maybe.”

“Well.” She made a face at him, “Did you laugh?”

“No.”

“See? You really  _ are _ a terrible liar.”

* * *

  
  


“Ok, I am sick of not going out.” Marinette threw her history book across the floor, and marched over to the Miracle Box. “GAMI!” She called on her transformation, and checked herself out in the mirror. She had a red filter over everything now, but she could still easily tell what everything was. 

“WHAT?”

“GET IN HERE.” Her sister trudged in, somewhat annoyed, until she saw what marinette was holding on her hand. “Nothing like a good old fashion costume-change to throw off your secret identity, am I right?” Kagami stared at the new Ladybug, completely slack-jawed.

“Holy shit, you look good.”

“Oh, I’ve got one for you too.” She handed Kagami her sketchbook, as well as her choker necklace. She watched as Kagami focused on the drawing, closed her eyes, and transformed. 

In front of her, Marinette’s vision came to life. She saw an all-black Ryuko with a red and gold dragon tail snaking up her leg, and a small white circle under her left shoulder. 

“What the hell are you- Oh shit you guys look good.” Chloé hadn’t been a hero longer than Kagami hadn’t, and didn’t make the connection that she’d get to be something too.

She tossed her the Chat Noir ring, and Chloé’s face paled.

“Is he… is he all right?” She asked. Ladybug just grinned. 

“Chat’s fine. His ego, not so much.” She teased, and shut her bedroom light off before checking her surroundings and leaping out the window.

* * *

  
  


Robin was falling. He never fell. He never screamed, either, but today was full of surprises. Like Marinette telling him he was a terrible liar. 

He screamed with absolute fear as he plummeted to the ground, eyes closed, waiting for the impact, waiting for the sickening crunch that would come with his bones being destroyed by the pavement. He screamed until he opened his eyes to find himself face to face with a masked frowning girl.

“I thought Robins could fly.” She spoke with a thick accent, and he growled at her. 

“Set. Me. Down.”

“I’m not holding you up.” She smirked, and he looked up to find a completely different girl with cat ears perched on a lamppost holding him by his ankle. She dropped him, and he landed on his feet gracefully. 

“Who the hell are you.” He instantly grabbed her by the throat and slammed her up against the building he had just been tossed off of.

“That’s no way to treat a lady who just ordered her team to save your ass.” She didn’t seem remotely worried. That bothered him. Everyone was supposed to be scared of him. He was the unstoppable Robin. Heir to the mantle of the Batman. He was terrifying. So why was she looking at him like that?

“Who. Are. You.”

“I’m Ladybug.”

* * *

“And that’s Ryuko. And my partner Chaton Noir.”

Ladybug watched as they got a growing crowd. The other robins didn’t seem too worried by her teammates, which comforted her. A little.

“You are not Ladybug, Ladybug is red.”

“Yeah, red and flashy, which I figured was terrible considering the aesthetic of this city.” She said, sarcasm dripping from her tone. “I thought it would be better to at least try and blend in, instead of looking like a jumpy traffic light.”

“You take that back!” He angrily slid her farther up the wall, her feet coming up off the ground, but she just sighed.

“Is he alway like this?” She raised an eyebrow at Red Robin.

“He’s usually worse.” Batman appeared, arms crossed, and Robin finally set her down.

“You know, for someone who wants to be Batman someday, you would think you would act more like him.” She grumbled, pretending to rub at her throat. He drew one of his katanas, and she just grinned. “Exactly.”

“Ladybug, if you don’t mind my asking, why the hell are you here?” Nightwing appeared and popped up next to her, and Ryuko teleported in between her and him, snarling.

“No, Ryuko, he has a point.” She leaned against the building she had just been thrown up against, and crossed her arms in mockery. “Look, I don’t really have a reason I’m here. Honestly, I tried to retire a year ago, but that lasted all of less than twenty-four hours thanks to a friend of mine, and then he suggested I take a break from Paris, so I’m here instead.” The strange looks that Ryuko and Chaton Noir gave her did not go unnoticed.

“Why Gotham?” He repeated. She sighed.

“I don’t know. I just really wanted a reason to not have a mental breakdown, and the mental breakdown led me here.” She looked at the ground, not meeting anyones eyes. “Don’t question the mental breakdown.”

“Fine. But you will not go unnoticed.” Batman disappeared, and the Robin audience started to disperse

“Yeah, I figured.” She grumbled, and then swung away.

* * *

Robin watched her go, and couldn’t help but feel like she was just a lost kid who was looking for herself for some reason. That was not a good thing to be in Gotham.

“ _ What the hell was that about _ ?” Oracle asked through the radio system.

“Demon Spawn made a friend. Two in one week, that must be a new record for you!” Red Robin smacked him upside the head, and he had to refrain from starting another fight.

“I did not make a friend.” He grumbled. 

“Three french heroes have shown up in Gotham. We need to watch out for them. They may be in over their heads.”

“I hope they don’t mess everything up.” Robin aggressively sheathed his sword.

“If you’re so concerned, you get to go play tail then.” Batman ordered him. He sighed, and took off.

* * *

Ladybug was not, in fact, in over her head. Just feeling out new terrain for the first time. And shaking a tail. 

She pulled the ear piece out of her yoyo, and showed Chloe how to get to hers so they could stay connected. Ryuko managed to get hers out of her hilt, and they headed in three different directions. 

“We got a new rendezvous point yet?” Chaton asked as she headed towards the ocean. 

“I’m thinking roof of that Wayne tower.” Ryuko suggested.

“Already on my way there already,” Ladybug threw her yoyo towards the large metal pole sticking out of the top of it, and pulled herself up at a hundred feet per second.

* * *

Robin hated magic sometimes. He hated magic users all the time. 

He could not possibly follow all three of them. So he followed the leader.

She dropped off behind a building, but this was his city. He had lived here for eight years, and he knew it better than most people ever would.

He tracked her from above, and when she popped up on the other side of the predicted building, he ducked down towards the alley and followed her from below. 

This went on for several blocks. She went down, he went up. She went up, he went down.

Until he lost her. He stood on the roof of a smaller building, quietly swearing and scanning the city around him. 

“Looking for someone?” He heard behind him. He resisted the urge to stomp his foot as he turned around to see Ladybug hanging upside down like Spider-Man.

“No.” 

“You’re a terrible liar.” She laughed, and he froze. Was it his eyes? No, he had a mask over his eyes, there was no way it was his eyes. His body language? No way could he be lacking in that department either. This was a nightmare.

* * *

  
  


Chaton Noir could hear so many things it was dizzying. As Queen Bee, she had never felt this weirdly over powered. Strong as hell, and well-balanced, sure, but nothing like this.

She could hear the people down on the street below them, and every movement she made she felt as though she was already mentally calculating the strength it would take to make her next one. She wondered if Chat Noir had felt this way, feeling like he was overthinking the area around him, or if he had been more of a lazy window cat instead.

She hadn’t quite figured out the whole ‘baton’ thing, either. She had gotten used to the spinning top, being able to whip it around in a circle to make a shield or tossing it out in front of her and being able to bring it back. The baton, she had learned the hard way, did  _ not _ function like a boomerang. She had thrown it out over the roof of a smaller building, expecting it to hit the wall of the larger building and come back. Instead, it lodged itself in the brick. She swore quietly, and retrieved it. You would think she would have learned, but nope. She tried it again. This time, it hit it sideways and just fell to the ground instead. She sighed, jumped down into the alleyway, and used the extending feature to bring herself back up to the rooftops. At least she had that down. 

Her ears twitched as she heard someone unfamiliar behind her, and swung it in defense mode. She found herself face to face with Catowman, and she yelped. Catwoman had a reputation as a bad person, but everyone knew she was like a modern robin hood. 

Chaton Noir honestly expected a more aggressive reaction, maybe a ‘who the hell do you think you are copying me’ or at least an offended frown, but she looked… excited.

“Harley, it’s a mini me!” She yelled and Chaton heard a second set of footsteps emerge behind her.

“I assure you ma’am we are very different.” She took a few steps back.

“Oh and she’s got a cute accent!” Harley Quinn grinned at her like a psycho. 

“She’s got a tail and everything!” Catwoman cooed. 

“I am Chaton Noir, bringer of destruction, and I am the partner of the Ladybug, creator of peace.” She slightly extended her baton slightly, as if that would somehow scare them. 

“I thought you were supposed to be a boy. And taller. And green.” Harley frowned. 

“There was a change of… what is the english word?  _ Mantle _ ? Is that it?” She noticed neither of them looked hostile, but still. She was worried.

“So I take it you’re new at this, huh.” Harley pulled out a lollipop from her pocket, and peeled the packaging off with her teeth. 

“I- I have to go.” 

“Bye, mini me!” She launched herself upwards first, holding onto her baton like it was a firemans pole, and leaned in the direction she wanted to go. Then she shrank her pole as she fell through open air, and extended it so it went over the edge of a building far below her. She used that as leverage to project herself forward, as well as going upward at the same time, and soon enough she thought she might have a handle on it. 

* * *

  
  


“SHIT.” Nightwing yelled as some big huge meta-looking villain threw a car at his head. He did his best to jump out the way, but with the large buildings surrounding him there were only so many places to go.

At the time he had calculated a car would have hit him at least in the leg, nothing came. He turned to see the car smoldering and sitting in two pieces on the ground.

“What the fuck.” he whispered, and heard,

“ _ Language, my goodness _ .” In his ears.

“Ironic, coming from you Hood,” He grumbled, “Oracle, do we have eyes on what the  _ actual _ fuck just happened?” He asked as he turned his attention back to the bird-looking man. Maybe it wasn’t a bird. He didn’t know. It was just another lab freak that needed to learn to live with his new look. Gotham  _ desperately _ needed better lab safety laws.

“ _ Umm… maybe? _ ” he heard back.

“ _ What do you mean, maybe? _ ” Batman sounded slightly distraught.

“ _ I can see something, but I’m not liking what I’m seeing _ .” Oracle responded. 

“What the hell does that mean?”

“ _ I think I’m going to have to have Red Robin take a look at this, maybe enhance it a bit before I can confidently rule out teleportation _ .”

“ _ Ryuko _ .” Batman grumbled, “ _ Oracle, I need you to check out some teenagers silly hero blog. It’s a ridiculous source of information but it’s the only one we have. It’s called the Ladyblog, and it’s run by amateur journalist Alya Cesairé. The only reason I know it exists is because it’s one of only two news sources Ladybug ever granted interviews to. It’s the only one that actually saves the damn things. _ ” 

“ _ On it. _ ” He finally managed to take down the huge bird-man, and waited for police to arrive.

Later, when no one saw, a mud puddle rose upwards to take the form of a teenage girl. She disappeared without moving milliseconds after. 

* * *

“Where have your friends gone?” Robin asked. She shrugged. 

“Off to save some people, I guess.”

“You guess?” He raised an eyebrow at her. She grinned back at him. 

“Chaton has ears that can hear the faintest sounds, and this is a city at night. What do  _ you _ think?” He tried not to snarl at her.

“So what are _you_ doing, then? Nothing?”

“I’m playing keep away.” She casually threw her yoyo, but didn’t go anywhere. She just started to walk up the wall sideways, and backflipped off the wall to show she was bored. 

“You're… You’re what?” She rolled her eyes.

“I’m stopping you from stopping them.” She shook her head like it was obvious, and Robin was conflicted. Go and find whoever the hell he lost, or watch and make sure she didn’t do anything she shouldn’t. 

“ _ SHIT! _ ” He heard in his coms, and recognized it as Grayson. 

“Your people better not mess this up.” He warned her, his mic turned off. Ladybug just waited patiently. Nightwing kept on grumbling about something, and Robin turned his attention to Ladybug.

* * *

  
  


“The one with the sword, what was her name?” He asked her. Ah, good. She was doing something hopefully productive.

“Ryuko, why? Is she being helpful? Doing something you can’t?”

“Her weapon, what can it do?” She hoped she didn’t do too much damage, or else she would have to miracle everything back together and that required a lucky charm.

“Well, given it’s magic, it can do just about anything.”

“Including cutting a car in half and leaving it smoking?” Ah, damn. So much for minimal destruction.

“Oh yeah, she had a thing for cutting large objects in half. I think she did that to the eiffel tower once.” She had actually been the one to cut it in half. Ryuko had the idea to tie her yoyo to her sword, and swing it around in a large flaming circle. That whole incident had caused substantial damage, and really hadn’t even done much good for them anyway. She recalled Kagami saying, ‘ _ ah, well. At least it looked cool _ .’ 

“What else can she do?”

“Turn into air, water, or lighting, but not at the same time, of course, and, oh yeah, she can teleport.” Rabin scowled at her. This was not the calm and collected person she had seen several nights before. 

“Well… I suppose you are not completely terrible.” He mused. She giggled. 

‘ _ We got a weird giant parrot-looking thing, headed towards the University. _ ’ She heard in her in-ear, and she panicked. She wondered if she could get there without tipping off Robin, and Robin onticing she was missing. Not that Ladybug was missing, but that Marinette was.

“There seems to be a genetically modified bird headed towards the University.” Red Robin appeared out of nowhere, and she swore loudly. 

“Shit, Marinette!” Robin practically dove off the building.

“You have something against birds, Ladybug?” Red Robin raised an eyebrow at her, but she just tried to get there before they did.

She saw Robin run towards her apartment building, and she almost wished she had Trixx to summon a mirage of her walking inside and shutting the door behind her.

But she saw Robin sigh with relief, and she decided it wasn’t so bad. 

But then they remembered the reason they were there in the first place, and the chaotic night began.

  
  



	7. Chapter 7

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> I'm bored let's kill Joker.   
> Chuck that fucker into the oblivion.

Wednesday was the first day Marinette got to play around with dip-dyes. They all started out with small strips of fabric, then they got to start with their bigger fabrics. 

Marinette started with an off-white, and dyed the ends of it magenta, so that it seeped nearly up to the knees.

“The thing about Chitons is that they’re basically one large piece of fabric folded over and held together with a belt and some metal rings, so they require almost no fabric cutting.” Marinette had told Robin. “That’s why we’re starting off with them first, it's a super simple project with gorgeous results.”

She ended up making two. The first one was mostly sleeveless, the two sides held together with a metal ring on the shoulders, and the second one with sleeves that had multiple metal rights all down the side. They were both the same color. 

“You will have all three hours of Friday's class to finish anything you need to do on these, and then we will move on to our next project next week. You will be partnering up with the photography students and several of the students from the cosmetology school across the city to be preparing your first photoshoots. We will go over the details on Friday.” Her teacher explained. 

In her english class she was still somewhat not talking to Damian.

* * *

Thursday began their first official project in Calculous. 

“I guess you're stuck with me.” Marinette smiled at him. He just sighed. It wasn’t a scowl, so that was something. The professor started to explain the project,

“The most common question students asked me when I worked at a highschool was, ‘ _ why do I need to take this class if I’m never going to use this in real life _ ?’ Well, I didn’t really know either. So I googled it.  _ Why do highschools require kids to take math if they will just flunk out and become gas station attendants _ ?” A few people giggled. The two in the back row did not. “The answer, I read in a smithsonian article, was that it teaches kids problem solving. Even if they learn absolutely no math they will use in their life, they will use the problem-solving skills they learned in their math class. Which is why-” He started to hand out fairly thick packets to each student. “-There are some problems in here you have learned, and some-”

“Yo what the fuck it’s double sided. Come one, man.”

“-You have not.” Marinette just frowned at the packet she had been handed, and sure enough. Some of them she knew the answer to, and some she did not. “You have four days to complete this packet. Consult your partners. Good luck.”

“Want to meet at the library tomorrow? I have no classes after six.” She offered. “We can borrow library books to get the answers.”

“I already know the answers to all of these. We don’t need books, I’ll just tell you the answer.”

“Yeah, well, I’d rather consult the book over taking your word at face value. For all I know, you could intentionally be trying to flunk me out of this class so you never have to see me again. Friday. Six thirty. The Library. Be there.”

* * *

Robin made yet another visit to the roof of Marinette’s building. She was found in the same place she had been before, leaned up against the box that controlled the air conditioning, and doing her math homework with a flashlight between her teeth. 

“Where were you yesterday?” He asked as he leaped down next to her. She didn’t even flinch. 

“I was working on other homework, I had to do research on the history of pleats.” She was wearing a hoodie today. It had a fancy designer label on it, which was strange. He didn’t take her for the kind to wear designer brands. “I missed you, though.” She smirked. 

“You missed me?”

“Yeah.” She shrugged. “It’s not everyday you get to talk to a walking mystery.”

“A walking-” He scrunched his face up as he thought about what she had said. 

“How do you do it?” She asked suddenly.

“What?” 

“Be a hero.” She shrugged. “How do you not panic? How do you manage to fight advanced humans while being, you know, completely normal?” He just stared at her. No one had ever called him ‘normal’ before. If anything, people complained how un-normal he was.

“How do you know I’m not a superhuman?” He challenged her. She laughed.

“I’m from Paris, remember? I’ve seen Ladybug and Chat Noir up close and many occasions. I can see how normal you are.”

“Huh.” He made a mental note to take a closer look at Ladybug’s actual appearance next time he saw her. “But why do you want to know what it’s like to be a hero? Have you ever considered becoming one? I don’t recommend it.”

“I was a hero once, actually.” She confessed. He raised his eyebrows in shock, and waited for her to continue. “But I wasn’t like you. Ladybug had entrusted me with a miraculous once, and when I became Multimouse, it was… different.”

“A miraculous?”

“It’s where she gets her powers from. A magic piece of jewelry, or accessory. She gave me a necklace, and I used it to split myself into multiple smaller versions of myself. I used the smaller versions of myself to fight a magic-stealing akuma. But being transformed was like…” She waved her hands around, looking for the right words. He couldn’t believe this girl had actually been a hero at some point. “I had super strength.” 

“You? Super strength?” He snorted, and she whacked him in the arm. 

“Shut up, I did." She scolded at him playfully. "But I also had better balance, and I felt more… stable, and I… I just don’t understand how you can do the same things without magic that it took magic for me to be able to do. You're really amazing to able to do that.” She looked up at him with her big blue eyes, and he found himself trying not to blush as she complimented him. 

“So what happened to Multimouse?” He deflected. She cringed, and looked away from him.

“I accidentally exposed myself. I was a hero for one whole day, and my identity was compromised to Hawkmoth.” The subject was very obviously sore, and he let it go. 

“Do you miss it?” He asked. She pondered the idea.

“I mean, not really. Chat told me, once, that he…” She sighed, and rested her head back against the AC unit again. “You know about Ladybugs miracle cure, right?”

“Right.”

“Chat told me that he’d died before, one night. On my roof.”

“He died on your roof, or he told you on your roof?” He shittily attempted to lighten her mood. 

“He told me on the roof that he died.” She smirked as she rolled her eyes, but the look quickly faded. “On more than one occasion, an Akuma destroyed him and he was brought back to life with the cure. I don’t think I miss being Multimouse because I think the pressure would get to me.” At least she was honest. 

“Damn. At least you know your own limit.” There was a strange silence between them. “I guess that's what makes good heroes. Knowing when to step back from a problem, and admit you need help.”

‘ _ That’s rich, coming from you _ .’ Red Robin had found a way to forcefully turn his coms on. Fuck that guy.

“Cute.” Marinette threw her pencil at him, and it bounced perfectly off of his suit and back into her hand. “Pretending you can come up with spontaneous inspirational quotes on the spot. I bet you’ve had that in your head for weeks and been waiting for an excuse to say it.” 

_ 'She's probably right.' _

“Oh, shut up.” He was talking to both of them. 

“No.”

‘ _ No. _ ’

“Fine then.” He stood up. “Maybe I’ll just leave then, if you won’t accept my cheesy quotes.”

“Ohhhhh, noooo, booooo.” She frowned playfully. “Well, alright. Just come back next time. I have to go inside anyway.” She stood up, and he handed her the book she had been using as a clipboard. She should really get a clipboard.

* * *

  
  


The next day, she found Damian in the back corner of the second floor of the library, sitting on the floor next to a stack of books. 

“What, are you allergic to people?” She teased him, and he pointed to the stack.

“I already have most of the pages done, and if you want to check my work you may consult the books.” He made no comeback to her comment. Disappointing. 

The packet was ten pages thick. It was double-sided, too. 

“This is going to take me forever to get through.” She groaned. 

“Maybe that’s why we got four days to finish it.” Damian responded sarcastically. 

“Really? I thought we had twenty minutes.” 

Two hours went by, and she yawned. Damian looked nervous to leave, but she insisted they get as far as they could in one night. 

“Fine, but I have to tell my dad where I’ll be. I don’t live on campus.” He sounded agitated. She had told her sisters here she had gone in case she stayed way late. Which she did. 

The second floor wasn’t very big, so when the librarian went around to make sure the place was empty, they rarely if ever did a thorough check of the second floor. This sometimes caused big problems. 

* * *

“Hey, what time does this place close, anyway?” Marinette yawned at the other side of the aisle. 

“Fuck if I know.” He pulled out his phone, and started to search it on the schools directory page. Marinette got up and walked to the shelf to put a book back.

“Uh, Damian?” She yelled.

“Hold on, I’ve almost got-”

“No, Damian, look.” She insisted. He looked up, and noticed all the lights were off. “I swear there were people there twenty minutes ago.” She frowned. 

“You don’t think…” He trailed off, and looked at the doors.

She jogged down the stairs, and gave the doors a push. They didn’t budge. 

“Oh no.” He grabbed both of their packets, and headed down next to her. 

He pushed the door himself, just checking to make sure it wasn’t too heavy, but nope. It was locked.

He checked for a way to unlock it from the inside, but both sides of the lock seemed to require a key.

“Damn.” Marinette headed over to the librarian desk to look for a way to pick the lock, but the desk was clean. 

“Let me guess, no lock-picking tool?” 

“No tacks or pins or hair tools either.” The fact she had actually looked for a way to pick it did somewhat surprise him. “Drawers are locked too.”

“What do you want to bet there are books on lock-picking in here somewhere?” He deadpanned. 

“Does Houdini count?” He did not want to admit that talking to her was fun. He tried to talk to her as little as possible, he hated making friends, but there was something about her that made her easy to talk to.

“No.”

“Then maybe our odds are…” She seemed to be doing mental math. “One in maybe five thousand?”

“You think there are five thousand books in here?”

“Oh, I don’t know.” She sighed, and sat on the floor. 

“You want to count them?”

“Why the hell would I want to count the books in a library?”

“Because we’re gonna be stuck in here for about-” He checked the hours on his phone again, “Six hours?” She put her head between her knees, and he wondered how he could comfort her. 

“What time is it?”

“Marinette, I have no idea how we managed to do this, but it's literally midnight.” He sat down next to her, and she stuck out a hand, and he begrudgingly took it. He hated touching people, but if she needed it he could make an exception. 

“Well, with any luck, maybe Robin will come get us out.”  _ Ha! Fat fucking chance _ . At least he could maybe text one of his brothers that- aaaaaand his phone died before he could hit send. This was really shitty luck.

* * *

  
  


Damian woke up to Marinette screaming. He opened his eyes and found Batman giving him a disappointed look. They had fallen asleep back in their spot on the second floor, hiding just in case anyone decided to try and break in at seeing them alone and cornered. Or if someone called the police at seeing them in the library after closing. 

Maybe it wasn’t the best idea, maybe someone could have actually, you know, rescued them, but still. You could never be too careful.

“What the hell.” Marinette stopped screaming, and started hyperventilating instead. 

“Oh, wow, look, it's Batman.” Damian had no idea what else to say. 

“What the hell.” Marinette repeated. 

“What the hell indeed.” Batman looked back and forth between them.

“Look man, I can explain,-”

“No need. What you need to do is get home.” Damian crawled to his feet, and gave a panicking Marinette a hand. He pulled her to her feet, and she leaned on him in her exhausted state. “I will assist you in-”

“No, I think I’ve got it.” Damian made a face at his father, which was met with irritation. 

* * *

“Thank you for opening the door for us.” Marinette couldn’t look him in the eye, not like how she could as Ladybug. Those were two different people. Ladybug was witty, and arrogant when it came to other heroes. Marinette was sleep deprived and being judged while an idiotic position. 

“Come on, we can finish the last two pages tomorrow.” Damian practically dragged her towards the sidewalk. “So, which building do you live in?”

“The ugly yellow one.” She stood up straighter, and he let go of her hand. She yawned again, and messed with her hair. “Thanks for walking with me.” 

“Yeah. No problem.” They got to her door and she paused.

“Hey.”

“What?” He seemed a little annoyed, but she decided to just go for it.

“Can we… Can we be friends? I know you don’t like me very much because you keep glaring at me all the time, but I think you're actually pretty cool and I think we could be pretty good friends.” 

“Yeah. Sure. Whatever.” He gave her a smirk that sent chills down her back.  _ What the fuck. _ Whatever, that was a problem for another time. 

She pulled out her phone, and messaged the group chat: 

**The Hottest Dupain-Cheng** :  _ you will never believe what just happened _ .

**Tall Blond and Handsome** :  _ Wait, isn’t it like three am where you are?????? _

**The Hottest Dupain-Cheng** :  _ Yeah. it is. And I just got locked in the library by accident with my math partner and then we got rescued by batman and it was cool as hell _ . 

**I will die with my phone in my hand** :  _ Holy shit no way _

**The Hottest Dupain-Cheng** :  _ Good fucking night. I’m so glad I have nothing tomorrow or I would literally just die _ . 

  
  


* * *

It was common knowledge that the bat family hated Joker. He had killed two of them, and been killed by one of them. 

But today he was on a kidnapping spree. He had somehow managed to kidnap literally seven Robins, four random vigilantes, Catwoman, Harley, Poison Ivy, and one pissed off Ryuko who was forced to go along with Ladybugs plans to stop him. She had pretended to be a young and dumb hero and not someone who could cut buildings in half with the flick of the wrist.

“I can see everyone.” She mumbled when the goons dumped her in the warehouse. The place was filled with bombs, as some sort of security to dissuade them from leaving. What a guy.

“ _ Describe what you see to me. _ ”

“People. In handcuffs. In a pile. On the floor.”

“ _ You are really shit at this. _ ” Chaton Noir sighed. “ _ Are they conscious _ ?”

“Some.”

“ _ Great. Descriptive. Thanks _ .” Ladybug was tracking her location, and she was reporting back.

"Fuck you, I don't get fake-kidnapped very day for fun. Of course I'm not good at this."  


“Who are you talking to?” One of the vigilantes Ryuko didn’t know asked. 

“I’m talking to my backup.” She frowned.

“Backup? Your hands and feet are tied.” Poison Ivy frowned.

“Bold of you to assume I would show up willingly.” She eyed the guards at the door, and refrained from busting everyone out herself. 

“What the hell does that mean.” Red Robin grumbled.

“You really think my kryptonite is steel cable?” She gestured, and Red Robin got a look of realization on his face as he recognized her. She could leave whenever she wanted,she just… didn’t want to.

“Damn, you really fooled them?” He whispered. Harley frowned. 

“It didn’t help that one of them tried to grab my sword and his hand dissolved.”

“Holy shit, who the hell are you?” A guy in a purple suit frowned in her direction. 

“Don’t worry about it.” She responded. Moments later, Ladybug was dragged in. But it wasn’t Ladybug. It was a mirage. It was a Rena Rouge mirage. 

After a few minutes, Joker finally showed up. 

“You all have been wonderful guests, but sincerely I-”

“You know, hostage or not, sometimes it’s nice just being held.” Ladybug grinned up at the Joker as she interrupted him. The man seethed with rage, but she didn’t really give a fuck. She wasn’t scared. She hadn’t been scared since Hawkmoth. And that had been a very long time ago, in her mind. 

Robin, however, had worked himself into a fear coma and was going to have to be dragged home.

“Who are you, that dares speak over me?”

“A fake.” The image of Ladybug disappeared, and Ryuko teleported out of her chains to draw her sword. 

The real Ladybug, who had some gray streaks to represent her use of Kaalki to get Rena and Carapace to Gotham, dropped down from the roof, and Carapace called a Shelter around everyone as the ‘security’ bombs went off.

“What the actual fuck.” Someone said into the silence as the dust settled. The Shelter was dropped when the smoke cleared. 

“Team Miraculous, not even nearly at it’s half fullest.” Ladybug smirked, and the two of them headed out to chase after Joker. Eventually, Ryuko managed to get herself in front of him.

“You know what this is?” She snarled. “This is a face melting sword. Batman may not kill you, but I assure you I will not hesitate to rip a hole straight through you.” The Joker started to say some awful thing, but before he could get a single syllable out, his head was rolling in the dirt.

“No!” Batman yelled, a few seconds too late, and Ladybug cringed.

“I mean… I  _ could _ cast the miracle cure, but-”

“Don’t.” Red Hood, Nightwing, and Harley Quinn all spoke at the same time.

“Didn’t think so.” She turned back to Robin, and looked sadly at his unconscious body being held by Red Hood.

“We need to get you two home. You have school tomorrow.” She called for Voyage, and Rena Rouge and Carapace disappeared. 

Batman was still staring at the very dead head of Joker, and Ryuko regretted nothing. 

“Tell me I’m as bad as him if you want, but be prepared to yield your eyes upon the field in which I grow my fucks and see that it is barren.” She growled at the older man, but he said nothing.

The shock somewhat settled in as no one said anything. This was a man who had tortured the city for decades. He had killed countless people, tortured hundreds more. This man had torn families apart, including the one they were looking at. He was more than the public nuisance Batman had pretended he was, and now they were staring at his burning severed head. 

The Bat continued to say nothing as he grabbed his son and disappeared, the rest in tow.

“Damn, a little thank-you would have been nice.” Chaton Noir sighed. 

“Chat, you did nothing.” Ryuko glared at her.

“You know, I feel you two aren’t taking this whole  _ murdur _ thing as seriously as you should be.” Poison Ivy frowned at them.

“Do I need to reiterate that the fuck growing field is empty?” Ryuko disappeared, but since her power wasn’t that strong she could be seen for only a moment on a nearby roof as she stalked away.

There was going to be a lot of fallout from this one.

  
  



	8. Chapter 8

Marinette was on her way from the physical training she was helping Kagami out with to a class of hers when a guy on the sidewalk yelled… something not nice. 

“Can you not?” She didn’t have the energy to fight this guy, but he just kept talking. 

“What? You can’t take a compliment?” He yelled. She sighed, turned around to fight him, but found Damian beating her to it.

“You can’t  _ seriously _ expect to be an ass to someone and for them to  _ not _ get upset over it.” He popped up next to her. She jumped. She never jumped. Where the hell did he come from?

“Look man, I don’t want trouble, so maybe you should just-”

“If one more idiotic word comes put of your mouth, I will sue you in twenty different ways, have you expelled, and make sure you find it difficult to do anything for the rest of your life. And if you ever come near her again, I might just straight-up kill you.” She looked at him in surprise. 

“Fine, whatever.” The boy stalked off, and Marinette just kept looking at Damian like he had grown a third head.

“What?” He frowned.

“I didn’t think you liked me.” She blurted. He looked her up and down before saying, 

“You’re tolerable,” And walking off. She scrunched her face up in confusion.

“I think tolerable must mean something different in Damian Language than it does in English.” She yelled at the back of his head before walking into her lecture hall.

* * *

“Hey, you're the girl that's friends with that Wayne boy, aren't you?” A blond girl who looked somewhat like if Chloé still lived with her father approached her. A girl with dirty brown hair and equally expensive clothes stood beside her. 

“Uh, yeah. Why?” She looked up from her notebook she had been going through. 

“We were wondering if you could introduce us to him.” She flipped her hair over her shoulder, and Marinette immediately regretted not ignoring her completely.

“Uh, I don’t really think so. He’s busy a lot, and, um,” She wondered what else to say. Maybe a  _ He barely likes me, why the hell would he like you _ , or an  _ I don’t even know you why would I do that _ . “I don’t think he’s looking for friends right now.” The girl frowned at her, but she went back to reviewing her notes. 

“Are you serious?” The girl seemed offended.

“What?” Marinette slammed her pencil down on her desk, and the girl finally got the hint and walked away.

“Dumb bitch probably wants to just keep him all to herself.” She heard the blond one say.

“She’s probably a gold digger, too.” Her friend responded. Marinette had to fight the urge to turn around and say  _ hey dumbass I own my own reputable and successful designer-brand company at 18, what the hell are you doing _ , but decided against it. She texted the group chat instead. 

**The Hottest Dupain-Cheng** :  _ Some bitch just called me a gold digger lmaoooo _

**Tall Blond and Handsome** :  _ hahahahha dumbest thing I’ve heard all week _ .

**I will die with my phone in my hand:** _asdfghjkl literally wtf. Why did she say that tho??_

**Whoooooooosh with eight O’s** :  _ literally what the hell _

**The Hottest Dupain-Cheng** :  _ She said it because she was mad I wouldn’t introduce her to my new friend, the math partner.  _

**Renegayed** :  _ Who’s your math partner? _

**WHO wants lasagna** :  _ Marinette of you accidentally befriended yet another multi-millionaire celebrity I will laugh _

**The Hottest Dupain-Cheng** :  _ Damian Wayne. I don’t google people because I respect their personal space, unlike you assholes _ .

**Awe fuck. I can’t believe you’ve done this** :  _ Marinette would never do anything she felt crossed any sort of line. _

**The Hottest Dupain-Cheng** :  _ Thank you, Rose _ .

**American Ninja WarriorTM** :  _ Marinette, pay attention in class. _

**The Hottest Dupain-Cheng** :  _ no fuck you _

**I will die with my phone in my hand** :  _ Be prepared to laugh, Kim _ .

**The Hottest Dupain-Cheng** :  _ Oh god what have I done _

**I will die with my phone in my hand** : _ Because his father is a billionaire _ .

Marinette sighed, and practically threw her phone into her bag as class started. It was going to be like Adrien all over again. 

* * *

  
  


“You can’t go out tonight, Damian.” His father sighed. 

“I need to.” He insisted.

“Robin, despite what you want to believe, the city will in fact function without you. And after last weekend, you really need to-”

“It’s not about me.” Damian snatched the rest of his suit back, and started to pull his gloves on. 

“What do you mean,  _ not about you _ ? You think everything is about you.” Red Robin rolled his eyes.

“Father, there is… someone.” His father pinched the bridge of his nose.

“Damian, please tell me you are not using the suit to impress somebody.” He sighed. He refrained from using only femenine words just in case. 

“No! It’s not like that, ugh, it’s… she’s a new foreign student, and she sits out on her rooftop every night and no matter how many times I tell her to go back inside, she still goes back out. I…” He realised how much it did sound like he was using the suit to flirt with her. “I worry about her. She seems to have this arrogance, like because she’s from a bad neighborhood where she grew up that it makes her immune to Gotham. It scares me.” His father sighed, and finally gave in.

“You will go straight there. You will come straight back. That is it.” Robin gave a silent cheer as he donned his mask, and hopped into the side seat of the batmobile. 

* * *

She found it difficult to sketch that night, nervously wondering if Robin was going to show up after what had happened. Eventually she got so nervous she growled and threw her pencil down on the cement in frustration with her shaking hand. 

“Are you ok?” She heard a familiar voice behind her.

“Robin!” She jumped up, and lunged to hug him at record speeds. “Oh, I was worried about you!”

“You were worried?” He frowned, but she didn’t let go.

“I…” She faltered. “I heard some rumors.” She looked down at the rooftop, not able to look him in his eyes, and slowly backed away from him to give him his distance.

“What did you hear?”

“Oh, nothing credible, but it didn’t make me any less nervous.” She finally looked up at him. It was strange not being able to look at his eyes, they were covered with white cloth she was convinced he couldn’t see out of, but still. 

“You really thought I wouldn’t come back to see what you’ve done today?” He took a seat down next to her little purple yoga mat, and she sat back down where she had been before. 

“I didn’t make very much today. I was distracted.”

“Distracted?” She blushed.

“Ok, maybe I was more than a  _ little _ nervous.” She squirmed. 

* * *

_ She couldn’t design? _ She was sitting right in front of him. Telling him she couldn’t design. Because she was busy thinking about him. She was worrying about him. 

Holy shit she was cute.  _ Focus, dumbass. You are not here to do that awful flirting thing. You are here to just make sure she doesn’t die, _ He mentaly yelled at himself, and found that harder to do by the minute. 

“Well, I appreciate your concern, but seeing as I’m the amazing unstoppable Robin, the concern was unjustified.” He smirked. 

“Yeah, but what if it happens again?” She whispered. He got caught off guard. 

“What if what happens again?” He deflected.

“Robin, you passed out from a panic attack. What if that happens again?” She curled herself into a ball, and he had to resist the urge to hug her. That was strange. He didn’t like hugging anyone. Except Jon. But that was a different story. 

“It won’t.” He tried. She gave him a look that said she didn’t believe him. He just sighed, and looked back out over the edge of the building. 

“I got stuck in the library the other day.” She mentioned out of the blue.

“Really?” _ I know. I was there. I’m sorry. _

“Yeah, it was so weird. I was working on this math thing, with my friend, and then we lost track of time, and we got locked in. It was kinda funny.”

“Wow. How weird.”  _ Funny? You looked like you were about to cry your eyes out. _

“Yeah, and then we fell asleep and then Batman showed up and I was kinda disappointed when you weren’t there too.”  _ But I was there. I walked you home. I watched you go through the secure door before I left. I was scared for you _ .

“Awe, you missed me?”  _ Wrong thing to say, don’t say that, you are literally the worst. _

“Oh fuck off.” So she HAD missed him.

“I thought Librarians were supposed to check the place before they just up and left?” 

“I guess she missed us, we were in a pretty hidden-away corner. I guess my friend enjoys being hidden away and we were just a little  _ too _ hidden away.”

“Who’s your friend?” Of course he had to ask. He had to see what she would say about him when he wasn’t there.

“Ah, I don’t like talking about people when they aren’t around.” She looked away from him. He had no idea what to make of that. Maybe she just didn’t like talking about a guy with another guy. Or something. He really wasn’t good at this. “But my friend… I used to think he didn’t like me, but I guess we all just express appreciation in all different forms. And I just need to know what his ways of showing them are so I can understand him better.”  _ I show my appreciation by showing up on your roof dressed as a bird in a yellow cape and asking you to please leave.  _ He had no idea what to make of this information. Maybe he needed to start telling her she was adequate more often. Then she made a funny look at him.

“What?” He asked. 

“You don’t seem to be in such a hurry to leave today.” She noted. He hesitated. 

“I, uh…” He rubbed his chin. He decided to tell the truth. “I was temporarily demoted.” He confessed. Her eyes widened. 

“So why are you even here?”

“I… I was only allowed out if I promised to only come here and back.” She laughed, and he relaxed. 

“You are ridiculous.” She shook her head, and stood up.

“Where are you going?” He asked. 

“Back to my bedroom. To sleep. I have school tomorrow.” She rolled her eyes at him, and he just froze. 

“No, wait, I wasn’t kidding. If you go in, I’ll have to go home.” She reached up, and held onto his cheek.

“Go home, Robin. Sleep. Please.” She let out a small laugh, and he gave her a dirty look.

“Ugh.” Was all he said.

“I’ll be here tomorrow. I promise.” She opened the access door, and turned around to give him one last look, “And if I’m not, start checking all the libraries around.”

* * *

On Tuesday morning, she offered him a high five at the beginning of class. He just gave her a raised eyebrow in response. 

“To getting locked in libraries overnight and getting rescued by the big scary Batman.” He sighed, and finally returned her high five. 

“You’re a strange person, Marinette.” Ok, it was a _little_ cute.

“I know.” She took her seat, and class began. 

“I hope you all learned valuable lessons with this project.” The professor began. 

“Oh did we.” Marinette mumbled, and he snorted.

“Care to share, Ms. Dupain-Cheng?” He yelled from the front of the room. She turned a light shade of pink.

“No I do not sir.” A girl in the front row turned around and gave her a dirty look. 

“What the hell was that about?” He asked. 

“Sorry that I sometimes make one-liner comments, I cannot help myself.” She grumbled. 

“No, not that, that was cute, I meant the girl who glared at you.” He pointed her out, but only because her back was turned.

“Oh! Her! Well, ok so-”

“Do you two have something to say or not?” 

“No sir.”

“Well then keep it down back there.” The girl turned around again, and Marinette ripped a page out of her notebook. 

_ She asked me to introduce her to you. _ She wrote on the top of the paper.

_ Well? What did you say _ ? He wrote underneath it.

_ I said you were busy and not looking for friends _ . Damian tried not to laugh out loud.

_ You know what? I think you will make a wonderful friend, Marinette _ . She smiled down at the paper, and folded it up before sticking it back in a folder in her notebook. 

“So then what happened?” He found himself asking as they left the classroom. She looked around, but couldn’t find the girl anywhere so she continued,

“Oh she and her friend called me horrible names, said I was trying to steal you for myself, which is dumb as hell, and then, even, worse, she accused me of being poor.” 

“What?” Damian didn’t think Marinette was rich, but she certainly wasn’t struggling any with her business.

“Oh yeah. She called me some english phrase, I think it was something like digging for gold, or something-” He squeezed his pencil so hard he was afraid he might snap it, but he refrained from doing so, “-And then I thought it was so funny I texted the group chat, so then obviously Alya had to google you, which I asked her not to but she did anyway because she’s a journalist, and then she sent a whole bunch of links to the group chat. But I didn’t read any of them!” She rushed to add. Huh. “I don’t really like to judge people based on what I find online. I think the media is dumb as hell.”

“Oh, I agree.” He nodded, and they went their separate ways at the door. 

She gave a little wave as she headed towards the art department, and he just nodded again in return.

* * *

  
  
  


Marinette headed to her gaming club, and grabbed her favorite controller as one of the older guys tuned on the XBox to start Super Smash Bros. 

“I still can’t believe none of you have ever heard of Ultimate Mecha Strike.” She shook her head as she kicked yet more ass.

“I still can’t believe you can beat me.” Ethan grumbled. 

“I’m gonna ask one of my friends from Paris if he can mail me my copy of the game, and I can show you how a real game is played.” She was so bored she was practically button smashing at this point. 

“Oh shut up.” Ethan grinned, and she kicked him in the ribs for a distraction. “Hey! Not fair! Judge, eject her for cheating!” 

“The judge deems the retaliation fair.” Samantha deadpanned from the teachers desk. She was a TA, and she was currently grading papers. She was the president of the gaming club, but with her TA job she ended up just mostly acting as the judge of what was fair and what was not. She let the teams be picked by the members themselves. 

“Awe fuck.” Ethan grumbled, and promptly died. 

“Language.” Kaz chided dramatically. 

“I got that reference.” A kid wearing a Wonder Woman shirt and texting said. 

“I got  _ that  _ reference.” Markus snatched Ethans abandoned controller, and they started up a new round. Marinette noticed Kaz pull a box out of their bag, adn start chewing.

“Ooh, Kaz, can I have some Maltesers?” She asked without looking away from the game. Kaz gave her an offended look. 

“These are whoppers.” They shrieked. 

“Same thing.” Samantha argued.

“Maltesers are satanic punny poop. Whoppers are completely different.” Kaz defended.

“Fine. Can I have  _ whoppers _ please?” She tried again. Kaz hopped off their desk, and walked over to where she was sitting.

“Open your mouth.” She did, and tipped her head back slightly. Kaz dropped three whoppers in her mouth, and she gave a happy squeak as thanks. “You’re welcome.”

“What the goose.” Markus grumbled as Marinette managed to outlast his shield. 

“I swear to fuck, Markus, if you don’t say at least one good old fashion swear word I will beat your ass to kingdom come.” Melinda glared at him. 

“Let him be, Mel.” Samantha finally finished with her stack of homework she was grading, and joined them in the pile of desks they had pushed together to make a table they were sitting on. 

“Billions of bilious blistering barnacles.” Markus yelled, and Ethan feigned great offense.

“Markus! How dare you speak of my family that way!” Marinette snorted, but managed to stay focused. 

“And another win for the hottest Dupain-Cheng!” Marinette made the joke before realizing they would have no idea what that meant.

“I mean, agree to disagree, but ok.” Kaz teased her.

“Hey. fuck you.”

“The hottest Dupain-Cheng?” Ethan raised an eyebrow at her.

“It’s my name in a massive group chat, I forgot you wouldn’t know that.”

“She has two sisters.” Kaz informed them. “And that Chloé is quite adorable. Even more adorable than you.”

“Ugh, you did  _ not _ just say that.”

* * *

  
  


On Wednesday, she made her way to the english lecture hall to talk about the theories behind some book they were going to start reading. 

“Marinette, save me.” Damian groaned as she sat down next to him. 

“Damn, what happened to you?” She frowned.

“My friend is visiting.” She blinked in surprise.

“You have more than one friend?” He scowled at her.

“His name is Jon, he goes to highschool in LA, he's a year younger than me. He’s visiting on Friday and he’s forcing me to go to the football game.” He angrily stabbed his notebook with his pencil. 

“Huh. If there is a single person on this earth who can force you to do anything, I think I’d like to meet them. Congratulate him, or something.” She teased. He just gave her a distressed look. 

“If you knew him, you would understand. He has these big bright blue eyes that contrast his dark hair that makes you want to just… give him everything.” He made a disgusted face.

“Holy shit, do you have a type?” Marinette teased him.

“What?” Damian frowned at her.

“Blue eyes. Dark hair.” She shrugged, and pulled out her notebook. He looked at the board, deep in thought, before Marinette poked him in the ribs to pay attention. 

* * *

Ladybug practically danced her way around the roofs of Gotham for only one reason: She had a song stuck in her head. 

She stopped swinging every so often for a little shoulder smiley or a head bop, and then whoosh off she went again. 

“What the hell is wrong with you.” Robin frowned at her like she was crazy, which it probably looked like she was. 

“Sorry, I have a song stuck in my head.” She shrugged. 

“Well get it unstuck.” He growled, and they headed in the same direction. This wasn’t planned, they just happened to often run into each other and just… not separate. He got to play leader, and she got to see the city for herself from the point of view of someone who had lived there for a while. 

“No fuck you. It’s a good song.”

“Well stop dancing.”

“Why? You got something against dancing?” She started to pretend to salsa, and he had to refrain from whacking her with the blunt end of his sword. 

“No, I have something against distractions.”

“Are you saying I’m distracting you?” She twirled, and he gently kicked her in the stomach. She stopped. 

“No, I’m saying your dancing is distracting you from watching Poison Ivy raid the local Super Target.” He deadpanned, and she whirled around to see it was true, Poison Ivy was in fact raiding the local Super Target. 

“Damn. I hate it when you're right.”

* * *

“Marinette, please  _ please _ tell me you’re not busy tomorrow.” Damian gave her a stressed-out look she had never seen before. 

“Why?”

“I really don’t want to have to sit next to some stranger at this dumb footbll game.” The poor kid actually looked somewhat terrified. She thought he was mad all the time because he wanted to be, but maybe that wasn’t it…

“Yeah, I mean I guess, does it cost money to go? Because I really don’t have a lot of extra cash just laying around and-”

“Don’t worry about that, if you can go,  _ please _ for the love of fuck just come with me and Jon.” She took a seat after realising she was still standing, and pulled her notebooks out of her bag. 

“You want me to bring my sisters too, or just me?”

“You have a sister?” He frowned.

“I have two. We’re all the same age because they’re adopted.” She explained. 

“Huh. I know someone like that.” He grumbled sarcastically. There he was again.

“You know who like what?” She didn’t get it.

“I have… two adopted brothers, an adopted sister, and two unnofically adopted sisters who just kinda live with us and one brother who just kinda lives with us that I call my brother that isn’t legally Fathers either.” He seemed to be choosing his words carefully.

“Damn.” Marinette responded. She really had no idea what to say. 

“Yeah.” The class started, and they sat in silence as the class went on.

“So I guess that I’ll-” She froze as they went to go their separate ways at the end of the class. “I was going to say  _ I’ll text you _ , but I don’t have your number.” She pulled out her phone, and he repeated it to her. 

“Do you need anything else?”

“Uh, maybe. But I’ll ask you later.” She waved her phone at him, and they headed off.

* * *

On her Friday design class, they took a trip to the local park to do their first modeling project.

For most of her classmates, this was their first. But for Marinette, owner and founder of the MDC brand, this was… underwhelming.

She found a competent-looking cosmetology student, and one of the students who had volunteered to model last week. 

Since the Chitons were meant to be loose-fitting on purpose, and also ancient greek, there were virtually no alterations that needed to be done to fit the model. This was a lesson about costume design. Maybe. 

The high-pile braids were sewn into place after nearly two hours of work. 

The model was given matching eyeshadow to go with the dress, and the photoshoot began. 

‘ _ Are you in class _ ?’ Marinette texted Damian.

‘ _ No, I’m at the airport. _ ’ He messaged her back.

‘ _ Ah, nice. I’m bored as hell here. _ ’

_ ‘ ? ’ _

‘ _ It’s the day we’re doing the kinda fake photoshoot with our first project, and it’s not nearly as interesting as some of the ones I've done at Agreste or for myself. _ ’

‘ _ Sorry? _ ’

‘ _ How is that airport traffic? _ ’

‘ _ Terrible. People keep stopping my father and asking him for pictures and it’s pissing me off _ .’

‘ _ Oof sorry. _ ’ She really didn’t know what else to say. ‘ _ Hey, what are you doing at the airport anyway? _ ’

‘ _ Getting my friend Jon. His whole family is visiting for the week. I don’t really know why _ .’ 

‘ _ Oh, cool. _ ’

‘ _ Not really. There’s a lot of people here. I dislike people _ .’

‘ _ I get it. Sometimes people can be too much. _ ’

‘ _ People are all the time too much _ .’ She snorted, and out her phone away as she had to take the clothes back and properly take care of them.

  
  



	9. Chapter 9

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> WHO WANTS SOME FLUFFY ANGST????!!!!!

_ ‘Jon and I are headed to the stadium from my house now. We’ll be in the parking lot in twenty minutes. Fair warning, it’s very cold.’  _ She received as she sat down on her couch.

“Who’s texting you?” Chloé teased her.

“I’m going to the football game tonight, don’t worry about it.” She shrugged her off, as she leaned away from her so Chloé wouldn’t look over her shoulder as she texted him back

_ ‘Tell me which one. I’ll meet you in the parking lot.’  _

“Ooh, you’re gonna meet him in the parking lot?” Kagami popped up on her other side. She growled, and stormed into her room to grab different pants.

She dug around in the clothes stored under her bed to get out her fleece lined leggings to go under her under armour sweatpants. They were the only sweatpants that didn’t look silly and also had pockets.

She threw on her solid black Agreste sweatshirt over a long-sleeve band tee, and some plaid-printed earmuffs Adrien had gotten her as a birthday present last year. 

* * *

She walked out to the parking lot closest to the stadium, where she met Damian and a tall dark-haired boy that looked similar to what she had pictured. 

“Hi! I’m Jon Kent! You must be Dami’s new friend Marinette.” He practically bounced out of the car, and Marinette wondered how the hell he was friends with a ball of angst like Damian.

‘ _ Dami? _ ’ She mouthed to him as she gave a very excited Jon a hug. He scowled at both of them in return.

“You’re right, he is cute.” She mumbled to him as they walked up the packed road to the stadium.

“Not you too.” He rolled his eyes. 

“I have two queer sisters, you know I don’t judge.” She smirked.

“He’s not my boyfriend, he’s just my very attractive friend.”

“Well, keep that in mind just in case.”

“Oh shut up.” She giggled. 

They got into the stadium, and found their three seats in a row. Technically, Damian was holding the outside ticket, but no one really cared if he switched with Marinette so he could stand in the middle. He really disliked strangers.

The game intro started and as people started to cheer Marinette felt Damaian shrink next to her. Apparently, he didn't like loud noises either.

“Are you ok?” She whispered to him when everyone sat back down, but he just tried to keep a blank face.

“I’m fine.”

* * *

The game started, and Jon got excited. He was practically bouncing with energy. No one noticed how he seemed to be suspended for just a split second too long, or how he could see every move the players made even with a ridiculously tall person in front of him. Everyone was too busy watching the game to see how everything with Jon was just… a little off. But only the ever so slightest bit. 

* * *

Marinette did not know jack shit about american football. She hated how they called it football when the majority of it happened with the hands. 

But still, it was at least somewhat interesting. She could see why Jon loved it so much.

But then some major move happened and the crowd flipped out and Marinette barely had time to register what had happened when she realized her hand was being squeezed. She looked over to see Damian with his eyes shut tight. She gently squeezed his hand back, and his eyes opened. 

“I’m sorry.” He mumbled, and tried to take his hand back. She pretended not to notice, and just held on tighter. 

“You have no reason to be sorry.” She sat back down, and whispered, “If you want a reason to go, I can come up with one. You don’t have to be here if you don’t want to be.” But he shook his head.

“I promised him I would try to be more into things he liked instead of just thinking of myself. I promised to try and get over my dumb nerves and be a good person.” He stopped looking scared and just looked more like his normal angry self. 

“Well, my offer will still stand for more than just today. If you need me to get you out of somewhere you don’t want to be in the future, I’ve got your back then too. Because that’s what friends do, ok? And we’re friends now.” He nodded, glared at the back of the seat in front of him, and she figured the anger was covering up fear. He wasn’t angry with most people, he was afraid of them. Interesting.

* * *

He stared at her hand in his. He didn’t like anybody, why on earth was he making exceptions for her?

There was just such a calming air about her, one that he hadn’t noticed until now, that he realised was probably what made him trust her so much. Not that he was complaining. 

Normally if he found someone to have a calming effect, he would assume that they were trying to manipulate him, they were magic or a meta or something, he would be suspicious.  _ Very _ suspicious. 

But he knew this was different. This wasn’t her trying to make him calmer for her own sake, she was seeing that he was in distress, and she was trying to help him. 

He held onto her hand, and for the first time in his entire life, he was glad to have a friend on his side. 

Things were about to get very interesting.

* * *

Several more times throughout the game, she found him squeezing his eyes shut while pretending not to notice her holding his hand, and pretending to go back to normal everytime the yelling subsided. She wondered how his father ever let him out of his sight.

* * *

It was all Jon could do not to ask Marinette hundreds of questions about her and Damian even became friends in the first place. She had no idea that he was Superboy, and that not only could he hear everything she was whispering but also sense her emotions and thoughts every time she tried to talk to him. 

He wondered how the hell Damian trusted her enough to hold her hand as a panic response. It had taken him years to get him to give him a hug, and here he was only a month after meeting her and he was already talking about his feelings. That had to be a new personal record for him. 

* * *

When the game ended, Jon asked her where they should go for dinner.

“I was hoping we could just go home.” Damian grumbled. 

“Or we could just go home.” He shrugged. “Marinette, you want to join us?” She didn’t notice the glare Damian gave to Jon, and just thought about it.

“I mean, I would have to tell my sisters where I was going, but I guess I could.” She hesitantly responded. She pulled out her phone, and he did his best not to try and guess what she was typing. 

He pulled out his own phone, and warned his family they were bringing a guest back and to hide Jason who was supposed to be very dead right now. He was very much not dead, and she needed to not know that.

“Father says to warn you that because we have guests over that everyone will be attending dinner.” 

“Damn, like  _ everyone _ everyone?”

“Yeah,  _ everyone _ everyone.” Damian gave him a look that meant  _ not Jason _ and he got it.

“Wow. Alfred’s going to be slammed.”

“This is Alfred we’re talking about, he can do just about anything.” Damian sighed. “Marinette, you want to ride with us back?” She hesitated. Again. 

“Uh, sure. Yeah, I can do that.” 

She climbed in the back seat. 

* * *

When they pulled into the driveway, her confusion was notable. Yeah, the length of their driveway was a little ridiculous, but she almost didn’t go in the door at first because she was so busy taking in the view of the manor when they finally reached it. 

“You didn’t tell me you lived in the haunted mansion ride at Disney World.” She joked as they headed in to find a very full house. 

“Come on, I’ll show you my cat.” Damian ignored her comment, and tried to drag her through the mess unnoticed. It didn’t work. 

“HOLY SHIT!” Dick yelled when he finally saw her. Damian recalled seeing that he followed her online, and mentally cringed. 

“Language, Master Grayson.” A stressed older man sighed. 

“You didn’t tell me you were bringing a famous designer to dinner, what the hell man?” He leaped over the top of a couch to say hi, and she blushed furiously. 

“Oh, that’s not really- I mean I guess I kinda-” She stuttered, and Damian sighed. 

“Sorry, I didn’t mean to yell, I just got really excited.” Stephanie looked around the corner to see what the screaming was about, and got equally as excited as Dick. They gushed over a tomato-red Marinette, and Damian just stormed out.

* * *

Marinette had not been expecting this kind of attention. She was prepared for maybe an off-hand comment about her designs at most, not total recognition and excitement. 

“Sorry, I didn’t mean to scare you, I just really appreciate a lot of what you do.” She gave a small smile, and attempted to follow Damian out where he had gone. But when she walked into the hallway, he was nowhere to be seen. She turned back around to the crowded room she came in through.

“So, how did you even get that Agreste partnership, anyway? I’ve never seen that brand collaborate with anyone, much less a solo designer.” Stephanie asked, and Marinette just smiled. 

“Oh, it was all Adriens idea. Most of the reason I have any of what I have is all thanks to him helping me out any way he can.”

“You’re really friends with him?” She widened her eyes as she took a sip of her tea.

“Yeah, he was in a lot of my classes in school when we were younger, he’s one of my best friends.”

“Wow, no kidding, huh?”

“Yeah.” She nodded, and Damian came back in.

“My cat.” He somewhat aggressively thrust the cat at her, but she was so excited she didn’t notice as she took the cat from him, and cuddled it close to herself.

“Oh god he’s so cute!” She found the last seat on the couch was empty, and she sat down.

“The cat's name is Alfred.” She looked up to see the guy sitting next to her making faces at the cat. Damian had somehow disappeared again. “Hi, I’m Duke Thomas.” He stuck a hand out, and she tried to shake it while moving the cat as little as possible. 

“I’m Marinette.”

“So I’ve heard.” She raised an eyebrow, but he didn’t elaborate. “We call him Alfred because he has a little bow tie.” She picked up the kitty’s head, and sure enough he had a white patch that looked like a bow tie.

“Holy shit, that's so cute.” She rubbed under the kitty’s chin, and he purred. She giggled. 

“This is my dog.” Damian appeared again, and she grinned at the dog. “His name is Titus.”

“You are a good boy, Titus.” She grinned at the dog, and was immediately conflicted about splitting her attention between the cat and the dog. 

“You want to see my cow?” She grinned up at him.

“You have a cow?”

“Yes, that is what I just said.”

“Dude that’s so cool.” She jumped up, still holding Alfred the cat, and they headed down the long hallways to the back door to go find the cow.

“I asked Father if I could keep a panther a few years ago, but he said he drew the line after farm animals.” He frowned, visibly disappointed. 

“My friend Alya’s dad works at the Paris zoo, I bet he would let you pet the panther there.”

“Really?” He seemed actually hopeful of this.

“I mean he let me feed the elephants, I don’t see why the panther would be any different.” Damian gave a small smile, one that didn’t make her anxious, and she actually started to consider it. 

The dog followed them out the back door, and she held onto the cat with one hand so she could pet the dog as well. 

Eventually, they found the cow.

“I call him bat-cow.” He informed her. She snorted.

“Why?”

“Because the pattern on his face looks just like the batman symbol, and so I call him bat-cow.” He shrugged.

“Nice.” She stopped petting Titus so she could pet Bat-Cow, and giggled as he moo’d.

“You know, normally, this is how Damian tried to drive people away.” Jon seemed to appear out of nowhere next to her. “He shows the reporters all the wildlife around the house, and then they don’t come back.”

“I do not think cows are considered wildlife, idiot.” Damian sighed. 

“But am I wrong?” Jon raised an eyebrow at him.

“Well, I show them the snakes that live over by the mini pond, and the tarantulas I kept in the basement for a year, but I don’t actually do anything scary,” He argued. “Except there was this one guy, from national geographic, who made me a personalized calendar of all of the pets. He has been deemed acceptable.” He told her. 

“Cute.” She responded. 

* * *

  
  


Ok, this table was  _ ridiculously  _ huge. She began to wonder what kind of a family was actually this big when she realized that… the family was actually this big. Sure, there was Jon and his parents, and his brother Conner, and Damian had introduced her to his father, and his fathers wife Selina, but there was also Stephanie, Dick, Duke, Damian, a girl she had been introduced to as Cass, a red haired girl she thought might be named Barbara, and-

“Hey wait a minute, I’ve seen you before!” She looked across the table at a guy not much older than her looking somewhat confused. “My sister yelled at you in Walmart about a month ago.” He made a face of confusion, but then lit up

“Yeah! The blond girl! I remember her. She had an allergy to… Tide?” He recalled.

“Yeah. I’m sorry about that, by the way. She can get strange when she gets mad.” He just laughed. 

“Look around this table. Being yelled at for help in Walmart doesn’t come close to what I’ve had to deal with from these weirdos.” She smiled apologetically.

“I’m Marinette by the way.”

“Tim.” 

* * *

About halfway through the dinner, in which she had somehow managed to learn everybody’s names from Jon, who was talking to her over Damian’s head, who made a dramatic sigh that she somewhat recognized. She didn’t hesitate to shift her chair so she sat closer to him, and he started to lean towards her. It did not go unnoticed. But it did go unmentioned. Well, to her anyway. 

* * *

“So, what did you think of the Brooklyn Nine-Nine finale?” Jon asked, seemingly very interested in what she had to say. 

“Wait, the finale?” She frowned. Jon looked at her in horror.

“Oh my god have you not seen it yet?”

“No, the last season has not been put on the european version of Netflix yet.”

“Oh my god, Dami we have to watch season seven tonight!” Jon started to wiggle with excitement, and Damian just sighed.

“Jon, it’s literally like fifteen episodes long, it would take us all night to watch.”

“No, I really want to see it, I haven’t yet.” Marinette made a cute face at him, and he just grumbled.

“Fine.” He looked towards the head of the table where his father was already nodding. 

“You can have your friend over to watch the show tonight.” He agreed, and Jon cheered.

“I guess we can watch a few episodes.” He sighed. Marinette grinned, and pulled out her phone to text her sisters. 

**WHO wants lasagna** :  _ did anyone else just lose power??? _

**The Hottest Dupain-Cheng** :  _ Kim wtf it's like 4am where you are??? _

**Uh, yeah, I sure hope it does** :  _ wait, versaille is out too?? _

**I will die with my phone in my hand** :  _ I swear to fuck if this is another Hawkmoth I’m going to shit bricks _ .

Marinette debated whether to check it out or not, but decided to pray it must be a problem with the power company.

**The Hottest Dupain-Cheng** :  _ Max, are you here too? _

**Genius Billionaire Playboy Philanthropist** : _ WELL I AM NOW _

**The Hottest Dupain-Cheng** :  _ Can you mail me my copy of Ultimate Mecha Strike? Please? _

**Genius Billionaire Playboy Philanthropist** :  _ Fine. _

“So, Marinette, I’ve been trying to get my son here to join some clubs. Do you have any recommendations?” Mr. Wayne asked her as she set her phone down and went back to the dinner.

“Oh, well, I’ve joined a gaming club, and we have meetings in the evenings on wednesdays, sometimes other days if our club president Samantha has a problem with her TA thing, and we just play either team games or one on one games and we have mini tournaments and it’s really fun.” She had not considered asking Damian if he had wanted to go, she thought he would just find it below him. But he actually seemed somewhat interested.

“There’s a video game club?” He raised an eyebrow at her, and for the first time she felt like it wasn’t a judgemental eyebrow raise. 

“Yeah!” She smirked, and gave him a sly look, “But you wouldn’t want to join, I would just beat you at everything. I’m the current reigning champion of every game we’ve played so far, you wouldn’t win anything.”

“You really want to make that bet?” Damian pointed his fork at her.

“You really want to get your ass kicked in front of a crowd?” She shot back.

“Oh you are so on.”

“Wednesday. Room 113, building 8. Five p.m.” She shook her head at him in a teasing manner, and he stuck his hand out. 

“What are the stakes?” She thought about it for a second. 

“I beat you at everything, I get to steal your netflix, you win… what would you even want?”

“I want you to make me hat with your brand logo on it so I can say I have a Dupain-Cheng original and Grayson doesn’t.” She laughed. 

“Hey!” Dick frowned at them.

“What kind of hat?” 

“Are you asking because you're prepared to lose?” He sneered.

“No.”

“Beanie.” He smirked, and they shook on it. 

* * *

The next day Bruce Wayne and Clark Kent found a large pile of kids in the living room. 

Jon was curled up in a ball on the far end of the couch, Damian had his back perpendicular to him, Marinette had her head on his shoulder, Tim was balanced along the top of the couch, Conner and Dick were on the floor in front of the couch, and Cass was somehow touching all of them at once. It was adorable. 

* * *

Marinette finally managed to get back to campus, and took a fat nap in her own bed. The couch had been comfy, her positioning had not. Her neck was so sore when she had woken up, she had to sit extremely awkwardly when eating breakfast. 

Alfred had brought her home, and no one questioned why she had seemed to be in a hurry to leave. 

After her nap, she took a hot shower to ease her muscle pain. 

“So, how was the sleepover with hot billionaire math partner?” she was glad she had gotten a new shower curtain with how good Chloé was getting at picking the bathroom door lock. 

“Doug Judy gets married in season seven.” She deadpanned.

“MARI WHAT THE FUCK.”

“What happened?” Kagami came in, and grabbed her toothbrush.

“MARINETTE WATCHED BROOKLYN NIN-NINE WITHOUT US IS WHAT HAPPENED!” Chloé slammed her hand down on the sink counter. 

“The utter betrayal.” Kagami hissed.

“Ok first of all, we have neighbors stop screaming, and second, yeah, I betrayed you. But for every question you try and ask about Damian I’ll spoil something else.” She had them pinned. 

“Damn you, Marinette.”

“Yeah, well, get dressed. I think Rena Rouge may need backup.”

“Wait, why are you just telling us now?” 

“I’m going to go find her myself first, and if things get bad, I’ll come back for you. But if nothing’s wrong, I’ll just come back and tell you nothing is wrong.”

She shut the water off, and was immediately hit with the cold. She hated the cold. They left, and she was free to leave the bathtub.

She put her clothes on, and grabbed the two miraculous she needed. 

She transformed, called voyage, and a black hole appeared in her bedroom. She stepped through, and moments later found herself standing on a roof in Paris. 

Ladybug, the gotham ladybug, crawled down the side, and found Alya sitting in her room on her computer.

She knocked on the window, and she jumped. Alya rushed to set everything down, and ran over to the window to open it. 

“Oh good you’re here.” She jumped inside, and tried to be as quiet as possible. “But may I ask what the fuck?”

“What?” Ladybug frowned at her. 

“The outfit.” Alya raised an eyebrow at her.

“It’s camouflage.” Ladybug defended herself, but Alya just grabbed her laptop, and called Trixx to transform her.

“We need to go discuss this elsewhere.” They went back out the window, and headed to the roof of the library. 

“Why the Library?” Ladybug questioned. 

“Because,” Rena Rouge cast a mirage of herself walking around the corner, and heading into the library below them, “Metadata.”

“What?”

“I’m using my personal laptop to show you this, but the government can use metadata to track where I’m using it from and what I’m doing, so we need to have them have a reason to physically see me in the library to see  _ meta _ me using my laptop from the library.”

“Huh.” Ladybug hadn’t thought of that before.

“So it’s not magical, it’s a bunch of hackers, and from what I can sense they’re working in an abandoned part of the catacombs.” Ladybug nodded. “They’ve been attacking the power grid, and I have no idea why.”

“Well, this is unideal.” Ladybug grumbled. “It took us six years to get Hawkmoth, I have no idea how we’re gonna do this.”

“Especially with the time difference.” Rena Rouge nodded. “But, since this isn’t a magical problem the police should be able to do most of the work. And then I’ll just… pop up and save the day so no one loses their life or something.” Rena sighed. “Damn, this is problematic.”

“We really need to make friends in the forensic scientist department, see if we can’t get in on the local crime.”

“Ladybug, you moved away.” Rena frowned. 

“Yeah, well, I’m moving back. When I’m done with school.”

“Maybe I should just drop out of school and join the police force.” Rena Rouge sighed. 

“Don’t you dare, it would ruin my plan to have the perfect team.” She frowned at her friend. 

“What plan?” Carapace popped up next to them. 

“My perfect plan, all dependent on none of you dropping out of school where you are.” She warned them. 

“Do we get to know what the plan is?”

“No. Not yet.”

“Will we ever get to know what it is?” He asked again. 

“Someday.” There was a silence between them, save for Rena Rouge furiously typing away on her laptop.

“Well… do we get to at least know some of your super-perfect plans?” She paused before answering,

“Well, being a DJ is very important, so stay there. And a journalist is very important too. And maybe… maybe I can tell you that in the future everyone knows everyone's identities.” She confessed. Rena stopped typing. 

“You’re joking, right?” She asked.

“No, it’s part of my super important plan to stop crime in Paris. We can stop all of the gang stuff, stay in the know of international crime, and make sure Paris is as safe as possible.” There was a silence again, and Rena Rouge went back to typing. 

They were there for a few more minutes before Marinette's phone went off. It was Chloé

_ ‘ _D_ on’t come back just yet _ ’

_ ‘ _Wh_ y? _ ’ She answered her

_ ‘ _Beca_ use Melody, in my intro to business class, is here. _ ’

_ ‘ _Du_ mbass I just won’t go directly into my room, I’ll go to the roof _ .’

_ ‘ _You_ never know, tho. dumbass. _ ’ Marinette sighed. 

_ ‘ _Tru_ e. Tell me when she’s left. _ ’ Ladybug watched Rena work for nearly an hour before Melody left and she could go back. 

  
  



	10. Chapter 10

She wiggled with excitement when she saw someone had bought the prom dress she had made Alya. They didn’t really have prom in Paris, but she had felt inspired by some dumb teen movie they had watched on Adriens stupidly large tv late one night, and she had made ‘prom’ dresses and suits for all of her friends. 

But someone had bought the cream-orange and white-streaked dress she had posted earlier in the year. They had paid about $700 for it, which she thought may have been a little under what she should have charged for it. She had spent quite a bit of time getting the layers right, she should have charged more per hour. She still hadn’t got it to take the item off automatically, having yet to contact Max about that, but at least it said “sold” automatically instead. 

She forwarded the email to her parents, and headed into the kitchen.

“We need more utensils.” Kagami frowned at their pile of forks in the sink and the one clean fork in her hand.

“Just borrow one from the cafeteria, that’s what I did.” Chloé shrugged, holding up her spoon that had the university logo emblazoned on the bottom. 

“Chlo, isn’t that stealing?” Marinette frowned over her tablet she was sketching on. 

“I mean, I’ll return it… eventually…” 

“That was not convincing.” Kagami frowned.

“Well, I’m not paying for the new utensils.” 

“Fine.” Marinette set her tablet down, and came up with a plan. “We make a game out of it. We all steal thirty utensils: ten spoons, ten forks, ten knives.” Kagami looked at her like she was crazy. Chloé looked thrilled. 

“Marinette, you are Ladybug, you are above this silly nonsense.” Tikki tried to argue. Marinette ignored her.

“First one to get caught has to buy the new utensils. In the instance that no one gets caught, the first two to get all thirty get utensil-buying immunity. Deal?” She put her fist out, and the other two did the same. Tikki and Longg just looked at them disappointedly. Plagg looked greatly amused. Let the games begin.

* * *

  
  


“Well damn.” Marinette stared at their second project they had to complete for the semester. It was late october by now, and several clubs had started putting up decorations in the hallway. She had said ‘ _ well damn’ _ because one of the decorations had rained glitter down on her project. 

“Ha. Sucks to be you.” Damian deadpanned as she leaned back in her chair. 

“Fuck off.” She tried to shake the paper, but the plastic bits didn’t budge. She sighed, and took out her phone to take a picture. 

“Why are you taking a picture?” Damian frowned at her.

“Sending it to the group chat. We have somewhat of an inside joke about glitter.”

“Oh.” He didn’t press it further.

* * *

The Hottest Dupain-Cheng:  _ This happened to my paper, immediately thought of that time Rose dumped glitter on herself in the art room and ended up making a trail of glitter everywhere she went through the school for the rest of the day _ .

She set her phone down, and resisted the urge to answer it as class started.

**Awe fuck. I can’t believe you’ve done this** :  _ Don’t expose my flaws, Marinette _ .

**Road Work Ahead???** :  _ Literal worst day of my life _ .

**play me a song oh piano man** :  _ you think it was bad at school? She came to our place that night and got it all in my electrical gear. I shined like a disco ball at events for months _ .

**Awe fuck. I can’t believe you’ve done this** : _ I didn’t mean to!!!! It was an accident!!! _

**DJPurpleGrapeBoi** :  _ we know, Rose. We don’t blame you, we blame whoever shittily put the glitter away on the top shelf. But it was still frustrating nonetheless. _

**Awe fuck. I can’t believe you’ve done this** :  _ wow thanks Nino. _ __

**Bumblebitch Crinklesquares** :  _ “whoever shittily put the glitter away on the top shelf”  _ _ 👀 👀  _

**I will die with my phone on my hand** :  _ Oh Chloé don’t tell us you know who did it _

**Lit as Shit mate** :  _ I swear to fuck Chloé if you’ve known this whole time I will never forgive you _

**Bumblebitch Crinklesquares** :  _ Smoke the bitch out. Make her confess. _

**Uh, Yeah, I sure hope it does** :  _ SO IT’S A GIRL! _

**Tall Blond and Handsome** :  _ looks like we’re playing a good old fashion game of ‘who stole the cookies from the cookie jar’ _

**Bumblebitch Crinklesquares** : _👀 👀_

**Uh, yeah, I sure hope it does** :  _ well I didn’t take any art classes that year so obviously I didn’t do it. _

**Go! Hench!** :  _ I didn’t take any either.  _

**I will die with my phone in my hand** :  _ Kagami? _

**American Ninja WarriorTM** :  _ I wasn’t enrolled in that school yet, there is no possible way I did it. _

**I will die with my phone in my hand** : _ I have a post on the Ladyblog confirming my whereabouts from that morning. Alix? _

**Tha Muthaphukkin SUN bruh** :  _ Kim can confirm we were having a fistfight in the parking lot that day.  _

**Go! Hench!** :  _ ok but like why is that believable tho _ .

**Genius Billionaire Playboy Philanthropist** :  _ The statistical probability of Alix and Kim in a fistfight is… through the fucking roof. _

**WHO wants lasagna** :  _ the truth tea _

**I will die with my phone in my hand** :  _ who’s left? _

**Whoooooooosh with eight O’s** :  _ Marinette. _

**Renegayed** :  _ No way. Marinette knows Rose loves glitter and would never put it up over her head out of reach _ . 

**Bumblebitch Crinklesquares** :  _ *witch voice* Onneeee ooooffff youuuu isn’tttt tellinggggg the whoooolllleee Truuuuuuuuttthhhh _

**I will die with my phone in my hand** :  _ AH! I REMEMBER SABRINA TOLD ME SHE MADE A HAND-MADE CARD FOR HER FATHERS BIRTHDAY LIKE A WEEK LATER! I NEVER MADE THE CONNECTION UNTIL NOW! _

**Go! Hench!** :  _ Chloé you promised no one would ever know! _

**Lit as Shit mate** : _ Sabrina, how could you? Rose felt guilty about that for months! And you just let her? You're lucky I don’t kill your ass! _

**I will die with my phone in my hand** :  _ Sucks to be youuuuuu _

**Lit as Shit mate** :  _ Oh fuck off. Worlds greatest detective my ass _ .

  
  


Marinette stared at her phone later that day, horrified she had missed such a revelation. 

“What’s wrong?” Damian frowned down at her. She handed him her phone, starting from her picture.

“Those are all my classmates from Paris. Except for  _ play me a song oh piano man _ , that’s Juleka’s older brother. Juleka is _ Lit as Shit mate _ .” She explained. 

“Your friends are kinda funny.” He admitted. They had both finished their classes for the day, but were headed back to her apartment to work on their math project. 

“You want juice?” She asked as she opened their fridge to get some juice for herself. 

“Depends, what kind of juice do you have?”

“We have the V8 energy plus stuff in peach mango because sometimes when I have to get up early for a lecture I hate eating food too early and it makes me sick so I just drink this fruit juice instead.” 

“Sure.” She tossed him a can, and he caught it with one hand.

“Ooh, ahh, impressive.” She teased him. He just sat on the couch and opened his backpack. 

The assignment was to create real-world math problems… and then act them out. 

“Come one, it’s a hike to get up there. The elevator broke last week.” They marched up the stairs, and her room was three doors down from the stairwell door. 

“Knock knock, bitches.” She yelled as she opened the door. Chloé raised her eyebrows as they walked through the door, but said nothing for fear of the spoilers. She was playing Uno with two kids she had never seen before. 

“This is Melody, she’s the one in our Intro to business class I told you about the other day.”

“ _ Our _ class?”

“Oh,  _ this _ is your sister? I thought you were cousins.” Marinette rolled her eyes. 

“I literally told you  _ five _ days ago I had two adopted sisters. Then you told me about your brothers. And then that was the end of the conversation.” 

“Anyway, this is Tony, he lives next door to us.” Marinette and Damian just waved, and sat down on her couch. 

“How the hell do we even do this assignment, anyway?” She grumbled. 

“No fucking clue.” Damian sighed. “You want to jump off a moving train and see what happens?”

“I know you’re joking, but you shouldn’t joke like that because my dumb ass will actually fuck around and do it.” She sighed. 

“Why do I believe that.” He snorted. 

* * *

When he left, Chloé’s guests were long gone. 

“Is everyone out?” Kagami peeked her head out of her bedroom door.

“All clear.” Chloé held her hand out. “Plagg, claws out!”

“Longg, Bring the storm!”

“Tikki, Spots on!”

* * *

They did their normal thing of going their separate ways, patrolling the city in three parts, and showing up if anything went wildly wrong. 

Chaton Noir was bouncing around with her baton when she narrowly missed hitting a nearby student in the head.

“Hey! Watch it!” Damian Wayne glared at her. 

“Sorry.” She gave the best Chat Noir trademark cheesy smile that she could, but as she went up to run along the rooftops something felt off.

She hadn’t noticed it without the Chaton Noir powers back home, but now that she had her super senses, something about him seemed… familiar. She wanted to get closer to find out what it was. 

“So, where are you going?” She jumped down next to him, and did the thing she had seen Chat Noir do so many times where he draped his hands along the baton while holding it against his shoulder blades. She did her best to copy it. 

“Why is that any of your business?” He scowled at her. 

“Oh, you know.” She shrugged, and tried her best to charm her way to get close enough to him to smell him. She was still confused by the whole ‘cat powers’ thing, having no idea how it worked, but still. It somehow worked. “Watching out for people.”

“Well, do it somewhere else.” He ducked into an alley, and she frowned. Obviously, she could hear exactly where he was, with her super cat hearing, but she just stared at where he had been moments before, memorising the smell. 

* * *

“Sometimes, to do good things, you have to do something a little wrong along the way. And when that happens, people often forget the good that you did.” Ladybug sat on the roof of the Wayne building, her feet dangling over the edge nearly an hour after she had gone out. 

“What’s on your mind today?” Robin sighed. 

“Regret for not killing someone.” She grumbled. It was true. Why was she feeling this way? Because Adrien had texted her he was thinking about talking to Nathalie. He had said he was looking for answers. 

“My father says killing people is wrong and it makes you as bad as a villain, but my mother is all about revenge. I still don’t know how I feel about murder.”

“Not helpful.” She sighed. There was a silence between them. 

“Who is it you want to murder?” He finally asked. 

“Hawkmoth.” She grumbled. 

“Ah.” Was all he responded with. “Makes sense.”

“Except it doesn’t.” She mumbled involuntarily. She hated when she did that, speaking without intending to. But she guessed everyone had to have their flaws. He just gave her a strange look. 

“Are you going to explain-”

“Nope.” But she pulled her legs up and closer to her chest, and sighed deeply. “He has a son.” She practically whispered, and Robin shifted himself next to her. She was grateful for the magic of the suit because if she started to cry the goggles of hers would fog up.

“I know.” Was all that he said. 

“He  _ left _ his  _ son _ .” She hated reliving that summer. Over a year ago. And she made Chat Noir deal with it. Chat Noir. His son. Who he had left behind for the sake of a selfish reason. 

“I know.”

“Stop saying that.” She resisted the urge to stamp her feet like a child. 

“Ok.” He scooted back away from the edge, and she noticed Chaton making her way, seemingly wiggling in a ridiculous manner.

* * *

Chaton Noir attempted to sneak up behind Robin. It was a terrible idea. 

“Ladybug, tell your dumb pet cat she can’t sneak up on me.” Robin aimed his grappling hook over his shoulder, fired, and she just barely managed to get out of the way in time so it didn’t bonk her in the nose. 

“Fine. I didn’t care that much anyway.” She crawled on all fours over to them, and sat closer to him. She tried to discreetly sniff him, but he gave her a disgusted look and leaned away. But it was too late. The blood was running out of her face, and she stumbled as she tried to pull herself away from the edge. 

“Chaton, may I ask what the fuck you are doing?” Ladybug tilted her head at her. 

“I think we should go home.” Chaton tried to sound as inconspicuous as possible, but she was awkward as hell and that really didn’t work out for her very well. 

“Chaton, what the hell.” But she scrambled to her feet, grabbed Ladybug by her arm, and pulled her along too. 

“Yeah, let's get Ryuko, go on home, and have a nice chat.” 

* * *

“Chaton, what the hell.” Ladybug hissed.

“Yeah, well, if you say the word ‘emergency’ in front of a vigilante, I think they might tend to ask where the fire is and I don’t want to have this conversation in front of him.” She snarled back. 

“That doesn’t answer my question.”

“I will tell you when we get home, just get Ryuko and get back here.” She climbed through their window, and transformed in the living room. Ladybug just shook her head, and headed back out into the night. 

“Plagg, this is freaking me out.”

“Ok blondie.” He shrugged. “I don’t know what to tell you.” Suddenly the room filled with smoke, and then it swirled around until a person was standing in front of her.

“What’s wrong?” Ryuko dropped her transformation, and Chloé hugged her. 

“Chlo?” Marinette raised an eyebrow.

“I think these Chat powers are freaking me out.” She sat down on the couch, and her two sisters sat on either side of her.

“Explain.” Kagami demanded. 

“So, I’ve realised I can smell people, right?”

“Right.” Marinette had had this conversation before. 

“And everyone has a different smell, you know?” 

“Yeah.”

“And what stopped the Chat Noir from finding out who you were was because of magic, right?” Marinette paused.

“Yes.” Tikki confirmed.

“So if someone with a normal mask, without magic-”

“Holy shit you smelled Robin.” Marinette was quite often smarter than she looked. 

“Tikki, I only can’t find out the identity of a person protected by magic, can’t I?” 

“I’m afraid so.” 

“Well shit.” She sat back, and Marinette put a hand on her shoulder. 

“Do you want to…”

“I don’t want to tell you, because it’s not my place to tell, but-”

“You wouldn’t have mentioned saying you knew who it was if you didn’t know them, would you?” Kagami frowned. 

“Guys, can we please talk about something else?”

  
  
  



	11. Chapter 11

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The twins get a miraculous in the next chapter. It's pretty cool.

“I think I know how we can do this dumb math thing.” She sat down next to Damian in her english class the next day. 

“How?”

“Ok, so, we’re learning about arches and how to calculate distances between different points in the arches, so I saw we have Grayson do a backflip off of a moving car, and then we can calculate-”

“Damian what the hell.” She laughed, her eyes wide.

“No, really, it could work, I’m saying that the arch he makes can-” 

“We can’t just throw your brother off of a moving vehicle for the sake of a school project.” 

“Oh.” He shrugged. “Well, it’s not like he hasn’t done it before.” She wanted to ask more, but the professor walked in and she had to stay quiet. 

“This conversation is not over.” She whispered. 

“I would hope not.” He tapped his pencil on his table. It really wasn't even a table, it was a lecture hall, and there were fold-down desks attached to the theatre chairs. 

* * *

“Hey everyone, this is my friend Damian.” She headed into room 113, and Kaz choked on the popcorn they were eating. “You good, Rat?” That was the nickname she had started calling them. 

“Yep. All fine.” They continued to choke, but eventually got a hold on themself. 

“Dumbass.” Ethan mumbled, and Kaz threw a popcorn piece at him. He caught it in his mouth. 

“We have a bet going, so can we please… What is the phrase you used the other day? Get this show by the road?”

“Get this show _on_ the road.” Markus corrected her. “And yes, we can, these idiots were just arguing about some person.” 

“Marinette,  _ you're _ an independent party.” Ethan pointed out. “You tell us which one of us Zoo is more likely to date.” He threw his hands out wide, and she just rolled her eyes. 

“Neither, Zoo is much too cool for either of you.” Chloé had invited them over to play Uno, her new favorite obsession, multiple times. “But Zoo does love a good pun and if they dated Kaz their ship name could be Kazoo and so I’m gonna say Kaz.”

“Hell yeah!” Kaz cheered.

“Fuck you.” 

“OH! I almost forgot!” Marinette dug around in her bag for something, and pulled out a game card. “My friend got my game for me, it came in the mail yesterday.”

“Oooooh.” Markus took the packaging from her after she took the game out, and studied the back of it.

“Markus, you can read french?” She frowned at him as it booted up.

“No, not a word. I’m just admiring the art.”

“Ah. That makes so much more sense.”

* * *

Marinette handed him a controller, and the six other kids in the club gathered around. He wondered why there weren’t more people in this club, given that it was such a large school, but figured that plenty of kids who would be interested must have class at this time. Or maybe there were multiple clubs. 

“Here. Best of three or five?” She started to get the opening credit scene rolling. 

“How do I know you don’t have a modification that allows your character to be more advanced than the others.” He challenged her. 

“Then we start a new page. Fresh characters, all stats start at zero.” She opened a new profile, and sure enough all of the xp was set to zero.

“Fine then. Best of five.” She nodded. “ _ After _ a practice round.”

“What?”

“I’ve literally never played this game before. You’ve played it a lot. I want a practice round to get to know the controls.” He argued. 

“Oh, that would make sense.” She mumbled as she selected the first level. 

The first time he made some silly mistakes, but he easily learned from them and advanced his characters skillset and XP quickly. 

By level six, she had kicked his ass a grand total of six times. Technically, they should have stopped after four, since three wins plus the practice round would have given her majority, but he wanted to go again anyway.

“Ha! Your netflix password. Hand it over!” She climbed up on the pile of desks, and held her controller triumphantly in the air. He smiled up at her, as she gave him an evil grin back.

“Fine. You win.” He pulled a notebook out of his bag, and wrote down the email and password to the account he used. He contemplated being an ass and giving her the password without the actual email, but decided against it. She beat him fair and square. She earned it. 

“There are already so many damn profiles on this one, you can just use my Icon. I really only use it when Jon’s around anyway.” He tore out the paper, and handed it to her. She grinned as she folded it up and put it in her pocket. 

* * *

  
  


Later that afternoon she found herself standing in the Wayne Manor backyard with a Mercedes, and one excited Dick Grayson standing on the roof of said Mercedes. 

“How did I let you drag me into this.” Marinette sighed. 

“With bargaining and evidence.” Damian winked, and she resisted the urge to clock him in the face. It was true, he had shown her evidence of Dick being perfectly capable of jumping off of a moving vehicle, including showing her that he used to be in the circus, which had come at a bit of a shock, but who knew with those kids. They all came from weird places.

“We ready?” Cass yelled from the driver's seat. Damian hit record on the camera he had ready, and gave her a thumbs up. Dick held on to roof racks on the top of the car. She slowly accelerated, and when she hit the mark they had on the grass, Dick stood up and launched himself backwards off of the car. It was quite impressive, she had to admit. 

He landed, smiling wide, and Damian stopped recording. Cass brought the car back around front, hiding the evidence, and Dick jogged over to them.

“Did you get it?”

“Yep.” Damian flipped the screen, and played back the video. 

“Great. Now the boring part.” Marinette took the SD card from him, and they took it inside to start the math. 

When they were done, she copied the file onto her personal file. But the original was still on the flash drive they were bringing to school.

* * *

“Marinette, you want to stay for dinner?” Damian asked her as he stuck his head in the fridge to dig for snacks. 

“Sure.” She put her phone away. 

There were significantly less people there tonight than the last time she had been there. It was just Damian, Dick, Cass, and his father tonight. Until Tim walked in, holding an ice pack to his face.

“What happened, did someone instantaneously react to how ugly you are at work today?” Damian teased, and Marinette had to resist the urge to react. 

“No.” He grumbled. 

“Well then what the hell happened?” Dick asked. 

“He tried to fight the vending machine.” Bruce informed them. Marinette let out a small giggle, but then a bigger laugh when Cass sighed and said, 

“Again?” She couldn’t help it. It was dumb and funny.

“This time the vending machine decided to fight back. The glass cracked, and a large chunk hit me in the face.” Tim grumbled. “I feel like a pre-crisis Pirate.”

“Well, are you ‘arrrr’ pirate or a ‘yo ho ho’ pirate?” Marinette asked. 

“I’m an ‘I’m not paying $600 for photoshop’ pirate.” He nodded at her, and she gave him a thumbs up.

“Tim, what the hell.” Damian snorted. 

“No, he has some point.” Cass nodded. 

A few animals made noise outside of the window Bruce was standing next to, and he looked out the window to see what it was. He frowned, and Dick and Marinette exchanged nervous looks. 

“Do any of you want to tell me why my back lawn has tire tracks on it?” He asked, and they all four said, 

“NO!” At the same time. Tim looked at them weirdly, and Bruce just frowned at them. 

“Are you sure?” He questioned them.

“Absolutely positive.” Dick nodded a little too fast as Damian shoveled a spoon full of potatoes into his mouth. 

“Cass?”

“I will neither confirm nor deny involvement.” She stared at her plate. 

“Marinette, do you want to tell me if you know anything about what happened?” He raised an eyebrow at her, but she stood her ground.

“I will say nothing to incriminate anyone at this time.” She tried. He nodded.

“Well alright then.” They finished dinner, and she went back to her apartment. She could easily have just swung there as Ladybug, no problem, but insisting she walk as a 'normal civilian' would have just been straight-up weird. Any normal person would not have been comfortable walking down that stupidly long long driveway alone. 

She grabbed her student ID to swipe into the building, when she paused. Damian's hair looked an awful lot like Robin's hair, even if 90% of the time it was covered by a bright yellow hood. 

But she put the thought out of her head. She had been trying to figure out Robin's secret identity in the back of her mind all day, but every time she thought she made a connection, she tried to forget about it. People had masks for a reason. She did not need to be trying to uncover it for the sake of knowing. It was his business, not hers.

* * *

She headed inside, and pulled her phone out of her pocket. It started to ring.

“Isn’t it like five am? Why are you up so early?” She asked.

“The gain never sleeps, Bugaboo.” Adrien answered sarcastically. “Plus, I just… I can’t sleep.”

“So you went to the gym?”

“No, so I called you.” She didn’t know how to respond to that.

“Well, what’s on your mind.”

“Parents.” Ah. Parents. Of which he may or may not have. 

“Want to tell me about it?” She opened her dorm room door, and crashed down onto her bed when she made it to her room.

“I just… remember when Mayura was getting sick because she was using a broken miraculous?”

“Yeah?” She thought of this so many times before. She knew this conversation had to come some time. 

“And… My mom… She was stuck in a magical sleep she couldn’t wake up from...”

“You still have those questions for Nathalie?” She asked. 

“Yeah.” He was practically whispering. He probably had people he was avoiding. 

“Ask them.” She encouraged him. 

“Marinette, I just… I don’t want to see her. I can’t face her alone.” He sounded so small and weak, not at all like the tough Chat Noir that she knew. “I don’t think I can face her at all.” She took a deep breath.

“You want me to come see you?”

“Please.” It was nearly midnight where she was, it was early morning in London. She had classes tomorrow, but… not until the afternoon… 

“I’m coming. Where are you?” 

“I lied, I am at the gym.” She could hear the smile through the sniffles. “It’s empty. But you should probably teleport into like a locker room or something, just in case.”

“Ok.” She hung up, and got back up from where she had only laid down for a few minutes.

She headed into Chloé’s room, and shook her awake. 

“What, bitch?” She mumbled. 

“I need to borrow your ring.” She whispered, and Chloé somewhat angrily yanked it off and handed it to her. “Thanks.”

“Fuck off.”

She went back into her room, and combined Tikki with Kaalki. She closed her eyes, imagined the gym at Adriens Uni. 

“Voyage!” She whispered, and jumped through the hole in her room. 

* * *

She appeared in a gym, and saw Adrien sitting on the ground with his head in his knees. 

“Hey kitty.” She said, and his head shot up so fast he whacked his head on the wall behind him. She resisted the urge to laugh, but when he smiled she let a giggle slip.

“Hey Bug.” He jumped to his feet, and she hugged him. With the help of the Miraculous, she was somehow at an even height with him instead of being two inches shorter. She had never noticed that before. 

“Hey Chaton, I brought you a present.” She pulled the ring out of her pocket, and he grinned. 

He slipped the ring on his finger, and a grouchy Plagg appeared. 

“How dare you just- Kid! It’s so good to see you again!” The grouchy Plagg was quickly replaced with hopeful Plagg. “These broke Uni students can barely afford good cheese, please save me from them!” Adrien laughed. 

“I’ll see what I can do.” He transformed into Chat Noir, and Lucky Runner opened another portal. This time, the destination was Paris. 

They ran along the rooftops of Paris, going their usual routes, when they ran into a student on her way to her 8 am class. 

“Uh, Chat Noir.” Alya noticed. “Ladybug.” Ladybug had changed her outfit this time around, sticking the horse miraculous in her pocket and reverting her costume back to her Parisian Ladybug outfit. 

“Alya.” Chat nodded at her. 

“Lovely to see you. In Paris. This city. Where you definitely live and reside in.” She frowned. A thin gold chain was clearly visible leading down under her sweatshirt. 

“Want a fresh selfie for the Ladyblog?” Ladybug offered.

“Sure.” She pulled out her phone. When she got closer to Ladybug, she whispered, “Is this your way of telling me I’m not up to code?”

“No,” Ladybug laughed. “We just…”

“Got a little homesick.” Chat Noir supplied. Alya nodded, and happily took the photo now that she felt a little safer. Trixx popped out from behind her hair just long enough to wave, and Chat Noir laughed. 

“Bye, Alya!” Ladybug waved. “Alright kitty, where to next?”

“Oh I am just dying for some bakery treats for breakfast.” Chat Noir looked at her hopefully, and she agreed. 

“It’s nearly eight. My parents should be open by now.” She giddily threw her yoyo up to a nearby building, and launched herself towards the next street over. 

They headed inside the bakery, and Ladybug almost started crying when she realised she missed the smell so much. 

She picked up a few croissants, several macarons to bring home to her sisters, and a muffin to bring to class later. Chat picked up a few things of his own, and brought them to the counter.

“How much do I owe you?” Chat Noir tried to pull out his wallet, which Marinette had no idea where it came from, but Sabine just waved him away. 

“You can take whatever you want.” She insisted. 

“That is no way to run a business.” Chat insisted.

“It is thanks for keeping our city safe in ways the police cannot, now please just take it.”

“I-” He looked over to his partner. She nodded, telling him she would probably sneak a few extra dollars into the cash register when they weren’t looking, and he sighed as he left without paying.

“Sometimes this job can be aggravating.” He shook his head, and she laughed. 

“Free cookies are so aggravating.” She playfully agreed. One of his alarms went off, and he sighed. 

“Do you think the cookies will survive the teleportation?” he asked. 

“Stick them in the pocket in your suit, that should keep them safe.” She joined Kaalki to Tikki, and they headed back to London, and, eventually, Gotham. Plagg was forced to say yet another tearful goodbye to his cheese, and Adrien just rolled his eyes.

“I’ll always be here, kitty. No matter what.” She hugged him, and he squeezed her back.

“I know.” He whispered. “But that won’t stop me worrying.”

She put the glasses back in the miracle box and set the ring on her nightstand. It was two am when she was finally able to go the heck to sleep. She didn’t have classes for another eight hours. Perfect.

* * *

“Did I take my flash drive back from you?” Ok, that was definitely Robin's voice.  _ Shut up, Marinette. If he wanted you to know he would have told you _ . She thought to herself.  _ But he’s been checking in on her as Robin all these times? And it could have been Damian all along? That’s just weird. And thoughtful. But also weird. _ She took a deep breath, and tried to focus in the class at hand. 

“No, I still have it.” She set her muffin down on the table, pulled it out of her bag, and didn’t look him in the eye so she wouldn’t be tempted to try and imagine what he would look like in a mask. 

“Thanks.” He put it in his bag, and she opened her notebook to go over their project one last time. They would actually have to present this project, explain why they chose it, and what their findings were. “Where did you get that muffin.”

“Don’t worry about it.” She panic-responded. He raised an eyebrow at her, but didn’t question it. 

* * *

Ok, Marinette was definitely acting really weird. First she wouldn’t look at him, then she wouldn’t tell him where her muffin came from, then she stared at him for a strange amount of time.  _ How can a muffin be a secret? _ He thought to himself as he watched the group in front of them present something about trains, followed by a video of one of them throwing a rock at a moving train to see if they could get it to hit a designated zone. They could. It was… interesting. But not impressive. 

Finally, it was their turn, but she had her eyes closed as she leaned on their table. 

“Are you ok?” He frowned at her. She jumped up, and he just shook his head at her. She needed some help. 

* * *

Halloween was upon them. And by them, I mean the heroes. Just one day left and the shit storm would begin.

“Ok, tell me one more time what the plan for tomorrow is?” Ladybug frowned at Robin. He just sighed. 

“You really don’t understand very much, do you?” She rolled her eyes, and he jumped onto his motorcycle. “The city is being split into twenty parts like pizza slices.” He repeated. 

“I get that.” She climbed on behind him. 

“And everyone gets their own pizza slice.”

“Yeah.”

“And you and I are taking the same pizza slice.”

“Ok.”

“And Ryuko is taking Nightwings pizza slice.” He started the engine, but she somehow was still perfectly able to hear him. 

“He’ll be there at the same time?”

“Yes, they are sharing the pizza slice.”

“Ok.”

“And Chaton Noir and Red Hood are also sharing a pizza slice.” He didn’t notice her cringing behind him.

* * *

  
  


“Are you sure you don’t want… someone else?” She didn’t want to tell him, but she felt like letting her get close to them all individually without fair warning was… well, unfair. 

“No, why?” She couldn’t read his expression from behind.

“Chaton… She has magic cat powers, Robin.” She tried. 

“How is that incompatible with Hood?” She wanted to smack herself. Or him. Or both.

“Think about it. She has cat powers. And…” 

“And what?” He sounded annoyed.

“Robin, cats can smell the difference between different people, right?” He slowed down, but she could tell he still didn’t get it. 

“What are you…” He trailed off.

“She can smell your identity, Robin. The mask hides nothing from her literal magic nose.”

“Shit.” He took a sharp turn, and she almost fell off. He accelerated so fast she thought he might be trying to kill her, but he swerved into a patch of woods, and she realised what he was doing. She closed her eyes.

* * *

“Robin, what are you- oh.” A woman with a purple mask and red hair stood near the door. 

“We have a problem.”

“I’m telling you, it’s not that big a deal, she won’t even tell us.”

“Tell you what?” The girl frowned. 

“Oracle, I’ve been compromised.”

“No you haven’t you overdramatic little-” She refrained from calling him a twat, but just barely. He just sighed, and explained the situation to Oracle. She looked back and forth between them, not sure who to listen to.

“I’m trying to say that she only knows you, only you, and is refusing to tell the rest of us. She literally will not. I have no idea who you are.” She crossed her arms, and glared at him. 

“I frankly don’t give a fuck.” He glared at her. Well, she thought it was a glare. It was hard to tell with the mask.

“Robin, I think we should trust her.”

“Thank you.” She sighed. “I’m also trying to say this is, A, easily solvable by getting a new Chat for just tomorrow and keeping her away from anyone but you for the time being, and, B, that I can literally get so much more backup right now. Like, seriously, I can call in so much help for just one night it's unbelievable.” She pointed out.

“Wait, how?” The girl in purple was taken aback by this. 

“I have a power that can teleport me to somewhere else. I can go and get Pegasus, King Monkey, Rena Rouge, Carapace, Prowler, Viperion, Worker Bee, both Iron Goats,  _ and _ the new Multimouse.” She pointed out.

“You can seriously do that?” Robin frowned. “Why didn’t you say that earlier?”

“Someone was busy having a breakdown.” She grumbled. 

“Hey, you know what, fuck you, I just-”

“Go!” Oracle shooed them out, and they took the argument back to the bike.

  
  



	12. Chapter 12

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Juleka is Prowler forgot to mention.

“You ready?” Ladybug grinned at the heroes. It was Halloween night, the biggest night for potential crime in a crime-ridden city. 

“Unfortunately.” Rena Rouge grumbled into her coffee. Her now less-orange outfit complemented her well. Not as well as the orange one did, but still well. 

“That’s a terrible attitude.” Red Hood said, somewhat excitedly, giving her a thumbs up. The two took off. She had traded, Chaton and Worker Bee were going with Robin instead. Carapace was with Red Robin, Viperion and Multimouse were with Black Bat, Prowler and King Monkey were with Batwoman, Pegasus with The Signal, and Ladybug and the Iron Goats with Batman.

“I still dislike bringing the Twins into this.” Rena complained over the Miraculous Coms.

“You were our age when the incident happened, now get over it.” Left pointed out.

“You have no right to complain.” Right added on.

“This is a different city, with different villains.” Rena Rouge countered. “It makes a difference.”

“Rena Rouge, we still need them.” Ladybug had gone over this a hundred times. The twins were the best option for the goat miraculous, seeing as they were identical and there were actually two miracuouses. One held the hair pin on the left, and one on the right. Two halves of a whole fight. 

“Still doesn’t make me comfortable.”

“Well, be uncomfortable quieter.” Worker Bee grumbled. 

“Hey,  _ Bee _ nice.” Viperion teased.

“Oh no, I don’t need another punner.” Ladybug facepalmed, and Batman tilted his head at her. She just sighed, and the two Goats started to climb a nearby building at incredible speeds. 

“How the hell…” Batman started to say, but then just shook his head. Ladybug threw her yoyo around Left’s stomach, and used it as a launching point to rocket herself up past them. Batman just used a grappling hook. 

Left and Right tumbled onto the roof, and Ladybug caught them. Right climbed up onto Ladybugs back, and Left scowled. She had been beaten. 

They had always competed to see who could get to climb Ladybug, ever since they had become Iron Goat. 

* * *

Robin eyed Chaton Noir suspiciously. She huffed, and he crossed his arms.

“So.” He started. 

“I can’t help it, I didn’t ask for this nose. I just got it, ok?” She tried. Worker Bee studied the streets below them, ignoring the two in the back.

“Well, you could have kept your nose to yourself, if you mind.” Robin grumbled. 

“It was an accident! Accidents happen! And I’m sorry!” She tried again. They just kept arguing over her control of her powers when Worker Bee saw masked men in a van head into a store. 

“Hey! You two! We have action!” She yelled, and jumped off the edge, and landed lightly on the awning below her without going through it, and the other two were farther behind her. 

She saw them pull out guns, and she used her top to knock them out of their hands as she lunged through the door as superhuman speeds. 

The van was deemed unimportant, she had seen what appeared to be everyone climb out, so there was no one left in it to drive away.

She retracted her top just as she realised she had missed a gunman. 

“No!” The clerk yelled, having no idea who she was, and that when she swung her top in a circle it made a magic bulletproof shield. 

She dove in front of the clerk, protecting them from the bullets with the yellow glowing circle. When he eventually ran out of guns, she knocked them all out, and venomized a particularly obnoxious one. 

“Holy shit.” The clerk whispered, and she just smirked. 

“Where did you two disappear to?” She asked sarcastically as Robin and Chaton Noir appeared.

“See, this is why you're better at this than me.” Chaton sighed. This warranted a confused look from Robin, but he said nothing. 

* * *

Down by the docks, Viperion and Black Bat were making faces at each other. It had started when Black Bat had caught him staring, trying to find the song in her soul like he always did, and stuck her tongue out at him. Through the funny mask. 

So he had puffed his cheeks out in a silly response. She had giggled, ever so slightly, and tried to scrunch her nose up under her cowl so it got stuck and made a pig shape. It didn’t work until the third try. He laughed, and tried to flip his tongue over and stick it out.

But they got interrupted by five tiny Multimouses jumping together to make one fully-formed Multimouse. 

“Strange van pulled up to the dock, looks sketchy.” She panted, out of breath. 

“Second chance.” Viperion mumbled, setting it as a reset point, and they took off silently. 

Sneaking slowly, they turned to see someone walking another person down the dock with a gun pointed to their head. 

Black Bat somehow silently followed them, but was not able to stop the gunman in time from nailing the victim in the head and dumping him in the river. 

She started to fight the killer, but was cut off by,

“Second chance.”

Suddenly, they were sitting in the weeds again. Multimouse was out of breath, and Black Bat was standing up to sneak slowly. 

“We don’t have time to be slow, they’re going to get killed.” Viperion took off, leaping over a nearby shed, and saw the van door open. He hid behind yet another pile of weeds.

The victim crawled out of the car, and the killer followed, grabbing him by the back of the neck. 

Viperion plucked a string on his lyre, and he turned to point a gun at him instead. Multimouse used her jump rope to grab his arm and whip it into the ground as he fired it off into the dirt. 

But Black Bat attempted to stop the driver by leaping off of the shed roof and crashing through the windshield. She had not been counting on the windshield. 

She growled in anguish, and the driver pointed a gun at her. 

“Second chance!”

They sat in the weeds, Multimouse, panting, and Black Bat trying to sneak. 

“Listen, I don’t have much time, but here’s the plan so far: I distract the gunman with my lyre. Multimouse, you pull his arm away from me with the yoyo. Black Bat, you take care of the driver but  _ do not jump through the windshield you’ll just break your legs _ . Got it?” He explained. They nodded, and hurriedly tried to make up for lost time. 

It went almost the same as their second try, but this time Black Bat hit the river from the side. His window had been left open. Viperion remembered, he had reached out the window to point the gun he had last time. 

He slumped against the steering wheel, and Viperion expected something to go wrong. Nothing did.

The police came by to arrest both killer and victim, who was not much of a victim except for being about to get killed, and they headed back to where they were supposed to watch out for. 

* * *

“So, what’s up with you?” King Monkey looked bored. They had been sitting in the same spot for quite a while, having nothing to do. They were watching over a fairly safe part of the neighborhood, but that was why it needed a more watchful eye. The kids expected to be safe here. They needed to know their expectations could be trusted.

“Why do you want to know what’s up with me?” Batwoman frowned.

“We’re probably going to be stuck here awhile, I might as well ask.

“You know, even if I did tell you what was up with me, most of it wouldn’t make sense because you don’t know me.”

“Oh. Well, I can confusedly listen along anyway?” She rolled her eyes. 

“Hey Prowler, can you get me eyes on-” She turned, but Prowler was long gone. 

“She’s far ahead of you.” King Monkey pointed out, and he was, for once, right. They turned to see the tigress walking unnoticed through a large crowd towards one house that seemed to have strange movement in the upstairs windows. He noticed her mess with her earpiece, and she came on through his head. 

“There is definitely some sort of meth lab looking-thing up here.” She said. “Want to cause a distraction while I disappear and mess everything up?” He grinned. 

“You know me so well.”

“What? What’s happening?” Batwoman frowned. 

“I’m going to use my power of confusion to cause a mass distraction and she’s going to take all the stuff out. And by take-out I mean destroy.”

“Wait, what?”

“She said there was a meth lab, or something like it, in there.” He shrugged.

“How does she know what a meth lab looks like?”

“We have a shocking amount of them in Paris. She’s the best at sneaking in and secretly destroying them, and making it so when they try to buy new supplies it pops up on police radar. Then they get legally arrested.” He called for Uproar, and caught his usual yellow toy banana. Prowler called her camouflage, and she disappeared, completely invisible. 

He snuck up to the window, and threw the banana in like a bomb.

“What the hell is-” Apparently, one of them touched it, because a burst of colored light flooded out of the window, and all hell broke loose. 

* * *

“So, what’s your job around here? I just open portals. That’s really it.” Pegasus shrugged. 

“Oh, I fight day crime.” The Signal was also apparently not supposed to be here either. 

“Oh. Cool.” They sat in silence, observing the street from his own version of the batmobile. Pegasus didn’t know what to call it. 

“I like your hair.” Signal tried. “What do you use to keep it going straight out behind you like that? It looks pretty difficult to keep up with.”

“Oh, it’s magic.” Pegasus didn’t know a lot about magic, but maybe that was why it was so interesting. “I don’t actually look like this.”

“Oh.” Signal sounded disappointed. “That’s too bad, it looks really cool.”

“I’m not platinum blonde, either.” Was it platinum? He didn’t know, he wasn’t really into hair. Maybe he should go blond, if Signal thought it was cool…

“Oh. I figured.” It went quiet again, until they saw someone pick up a rock to throw it through the window of a bank.

“Oh, now this is just ridiculous.” Pegasus went to roll his eyes, but the glasses covered them so there was no point. “Throwing a rock through a window? That’s just dumb.”

“And does he not even  _ see _ the Batmobile?” Signal continued the rant as they climbed out, ready to stop him. “It’s like, are you really going to commit a crime if you have a reason to think Batman is anywhere near you?” Pegasus pulled out his boomerang, and nailed the guy in the head. He was knocked out cold. “Nice shot, by the way.”

“Thank you. And indeed, if there is reasonable doubt a masked vigilante is nearby, the chances of getting caught are upped a considerable percent.” 

“Right?” The guy agreed with him, and they headed over to the unconscious criminal. 

Pegasus used his boomerang to scratch ‘sorry’ and a frowny face onto the already broken glass, and the police were on their way. 

“Well, this was underwhelming.”

“Mood.”

“What?”

“Ah, don’t worry about it.”

* * *

“So… Arkham…” Ladybug frowned at the big building. To say that the twins looked horrified would be an understatement.

“Do you think Hawkmoth is in a pace like this?” Left asked. 

“Of course he is, where else would he be?” Right frowned.

“Why do we need to be here, again?” Ladybug sighed. 

“Because this place is always attacked on Halloween.” 

“Oh.” Left squirmed as they waited.

“And what if nothing happens?” Right asked. 

“Well, something will always happen. Maybe that something is just not today.” Ladybug was confused by the Batman guy. He had been around for a while, but he didn;t seem… old. Just strange. And he was supposed to be intimidating, but he just seemed weird. Like, why the bat? Why be so angry and glare-y if you were just going to-

Alarm bells went off in the background, and the twins grabbed their respective tools. Left was holding a shepherd staff, which could only be activated after Right blew the goat horn. 

But not yet. 

They waited until they actually saw people until they believed what they were seeing. 

“Someone managed to get a bomb on the inside. The attack is internal.” He yelled, and the twins stood at the ready. 

“Lucky Charm.” Ladybug said quietly, and a pair of earmuffs came out. She handed them to Batman, who tilted his head. “Don’t worry too much.” She shrugged. Then she nodded at Iron Goat.

“What is she doing?” Batman asked. 

“Our powers are based on animals, right? So goats are known to faint at random times.” She started to explain. Right blew on her horn, and they all collapsed at the sound.

“Shepard!” Left called, and their hook-ended staff started to glow.

“Oh I don’t like that.” Batman frowned. 

“Right has the power to make them faint. After she does that, Left has the power of mind control. Hypnosis.”

“Huh.” The nearly-escaped criminals slowly crawled like zombies back to where they were supposed to be.

“Miraculous Ladybug!” She threw the earmuffs in the air, and everything went back to normal. The building, basically, un-exploded. 

* * *

“Well, Ladybugs up to something.” Rena Rouge noticed as purple butterflies lit up the sky in the distance. 

“That’s Arkham. That's where all the really bad guys go.” Red Hood nodded.

“Oh, lit.” Rena criss-crossed her legs from the top of the church they had climbed. “We only really had two big bad guys, and they used magic Miraculouses that were taken away, so they’re not much of a threat as some random old man and average middle-aged woman.” She shrugged. “No sense in building a special place for two old people.” Red Hood snorted, and then it turned into a giggle.

“Wait, so you're telling me that two old people were kicking the asses of, like, thirteen teenagers?”He laughed.

“Ok, first, of all,” She fought a laugh down, which was difficult considering, “The number of us fluctuate constantly, because when someone’s identity got exposed their powers had to go to someone else, so sometimes a person would come and go as different users, and fuck you. Those old people were magically advanced and through the powers of magic, or laws, or whatever, the older someone is apparently the more powerful they are. And there were  _ two _ super powerful old people. So fuck you for that.” She had never considered this before. A bunch of teens fighting two older people over something none of them knew about until the final day. 

“Wait, really? None of you know each other's identities?” He tilted his head at her. This didn’t seem to register with him. 

“Well, not  _ no one _ . I know who my boyfriend is and he knows who I am. And I’m pretty sure LB and the Original Chat know each other.” She shrugged. “But Marinette was only Multimouse for a day before she got caught and couldn’t be Multimouse ever again. And Chloé’s dumb ass exposed herself as Queen Bee when she was a kid for attention.”

“Oh damn.”

“And then there are a lot of people who know who Ryuko is. But she comes from a very long blood line of highly skilled fighters, so no one dares mess with her even if they do know.”

“Good for her.” 

“Yeah.” They waited, staring down at the strange creepy street, before deciding to move on to somewhere else. 

“We can come back and check again later.”

“Sounds like a plan.”

They ended up just walking down the road, when she got an overwhelming urge to talk about something that had been bothering her for over a year. She had never felt like it was ok to talk about before, but somehow, right now, she felt… safe. Weirdly, absurdly, safe. On the dirt road on halloween night, with a full moon, patrolling with a stranger who was notoriously not safe, she felt safe. 

“Can I tell you something?” She started. 

“Uh, ok?” He shrugged. “Go for it.”

“You know about that purple light thing back there, the Miracle Cure, right?” She asked. 

“Yeah, I’ve been told what it does. Sets everything to the way it should be.” She took a deep breath.

“It’s brought back people that have died in battle before.” She noticed his flinch, but kept going, “And sometimes, I have to wonder. What if one day it doesn’t work? What if, one day, one of us goes down, and the miracle cure decides we’re not worth saving? I mean, we don’t even know very much about magic, so who of us is to say that the fear is irrational?” There was silence, save for the sound of dirt beneath their feet. 

“What brought this fear on?” He asked. She knew he would know what to say.

“My boyfriend, Carapace, the turtle boy. He has the power to create an impenetrable shield.” She started. “But one day, he…” She took a deep breath. “Instead of using to keep us in, and the bad guy of the day out, he decided to… sacrifice himself.” She kicked a rock. “He trapped himself in with the nasty woman, Mayura, and used the shield to not let her out. She fought him until she killed him, wearing herself out enough for her to be easy for us to take her down. She…” Rena Rouge took another deep breath. “And I’m scared, one day, it's gonna happen again, and this time, he won’t come back.” There was a silent pause. 

“That is a rational fear. You have every right to be afraid of losing people you care about.” He nodded, but she was busy looking at the dirt.

“Thanks.” 

“Yeah. It’s what I’m good at.”

“Encouraging people to feel better, or encouraging them to be scared?” She tried to lighten the mood she had ruined. 

“Yes.” He answered. She snorted.

“Good to know.”

* * *

Red Robin was no good at conversations. And apparently, neither was this guy.

“Do you like turtles?” He blurted out.

“Uh, yeah.” Carapace nodded. “I think turtles are pretty cool.”

“Neat.” Red Robin gave him an awkward smile. 

“I mean, I live with a tiny magic turtle, so I guess I have to think that they’re cool.”

“Wait, what?” 

“Yeah, no ok, so, like, we get our powers from tiny gods that create the suits we wear through magic jewelry and give us magic weapons. It’s pretty cool.” Red Robin actually laughed at that.

“If someone had told me those exact words six months ago, I would have laughed.”

“You're laughing now.” Carapace pointed out.

“I mean, laughed, as in, I wouldn’t have believed you.”

“Oh, I know.” He nodded. 

“But since I’ve seen Ladybug and her friends do some statistically impossible things, I’m just going with whatever now.”

“Most people don’t believe until they see, I get it.” He adjusted his shield. “Hey, you want to see something cool?”

“Are you going to activate the Shelter?” Red Robin did actually want to see that in person.

“Even better.” Carapace grinned. “I learned how to throw it like Captain America.”

“Oh no way.” Red Robin grinned as Carapace perfectly imitated Chris Evans form as he threw his shield at a nearby building, it bounced off of a few more buildings like a pinball machine, and came flying back into his hand. “THAT WAS SO COOL!” Red Robin practically bounced with energy. “Ok, now can I see Shelter?” he asked. 

“Yeah!” Carapace called his shelter, and a glowing green orb surrounded them. 

“THIS IS SO AWESOME!” He grinned, and tapped on the green shield. It made no noise to the touch, but it was more than definitely solid. “Oh, this is so fucking wild.”

“You really think so?”

“Hell yeah I really think so. Wait, hold on.” He backed up, grabbed a Batarang, and threw it at the shield. It didn’t bounce back into his hand the way he thought it would, but instead went directly down into the ground. “Whoa.” Carapace dropped the Shelter, and Red Robin just grinned. 

* * *

Damian was still freaking out about the whole ‘Chaton can smell you’ thing. It was a weird thing to be scared of, she was quite clearly trustable, but still. He had seen people in the League fall apart and go insane from being exposed before. 

This was frustrating. He couldn’t talk to anyone about this problem, their ‘comforting’ words would just piss him off even more.

But he did know someone who would let him be upset for no reason and not question it. He knew a Marinette.

* * *

Marinette was working on a sketch after her last class on monday when she got a distress message from Damian.

‘ _ Help. _ ’ She frowned at it.

‘ _ Help with what???? _ ’

‘ _ Yes. _ ’ Her notifications went off again. ‘ _ Everything. _ ’ And again. _‘_ _ All _ _’_ and again. ‘ _ Check all of the above. _ ’ And again.

_ ‘Ok. where are you? _ ’

‘ _ Home. Help. _ ’

‘ _ I have no way to get to your home?? _ ?’

‘ _ Fuck _ .’ Her phone remained silent as she wondered if it would be worth it to show up as Ladybug. ‘ _ I’m coming to yours, then _ .’

‘ _ Fine with me. _ ’

‘ _ You really need to get a car _ .’

‘ _ I live in a city so I don’t have a license, and I can’t get an american one _ .’ She struggled with spelling the word ‘license’ but got there eventually.

‘ _ Get a car anyway _ .’ She waited outside for him, and he was there in a ridiculously short time. 

“Did you speed here? Please tell me you didn’t speed here.”

“I did as I wanted to.” He snarked as he marched past her, and she opened the door with her student id. 

She let them into her dorm, and he marched into her room, dramatically flinging himself onto the floor face first. 

“You ok?” She asked, and closed the door behind them. No one was there to yell at her about closed doors, Chloé and Kagami both had classes later in the day than her.

“Do I need to answer that?” He grumbled into her rug.

“No. I just thought it might be polite.” She shrugged, and he rolled over onto his back. “Want to tell me what happened?”

“No.”

“Ok.” He spread his arms out as if he was T-Posing, and she grabbed a book off of her shelf. He didn’t notice her look nervously at the other side of the room, where two strange boxes sat under her bed. One full of magic items, the other full of spoons.

She sat down next to him, and used his arm as a pillow to read her book. He just sat very still, eyes scrunched shut. She knew it was nicer to wait near him rather than leaving him alone.

They sat in silence for nearly twenty minutes until he asked, 

“What are you reading?”

“A book adaptation of a famous french movie.” She answered cheerfully. 

“Oh.” He didn’t say anything else.

“It’s about a boarding school in france for troubled kids, and they hire a guy as a study hall monitor, kinda, and then he ends up helping some of the more troubled kids start a choir, to help with their attitude, and then it become a habit of theirs when they feel like being bad kids they just start singing. It’s a really nice movie.”

“Oh.” She continued to read until she heard his breathing pattern change. 

“Hey.” She whispered. No answer. He was asleep.

She turned herself so she was facing him, and they fell asleep on the floor.

* * *

“Oh you have got to be kidding me.” Marinette flinched at the sudden noise, her head hitting the floor, and her eyes adjusted to see Chloé standing in the doorway with her phone out. 

“Oh fuck off.” Marinette rubbed her head where it had suddenly hit the floor, and heard Damian coughing from surprise to her right. He sat up, and put his head on his knees.

“Marinette, what the hell.” Chloé smirked at her, and Marinette gave her the middle finger. No, wait, she gave her  _ two _ middle fingers. 

“Holy shit you scared me.” Damian leaned back against the foot of her bed frame, and she just frowned with her eyes closed. 

“Good. Now stop staying in my baby sisters room with the door closed, or I might have to kick your ass.”

“I hate you.”

“For what? Being older than you?”

“For existing.” She grumbled. “ _ And _ being older than me.”

“Suck it.” Chloé left, leaving the door open, and Marinette pulled a floor cushion over her face. She had fallen asleep with the lights on. 

A few moments of silence passed as they tried to both catch their breath, until Damians phone went off.

“Cass wants ice cream.” He said. She grunted in response. It was November now, but Ice Cream Time was All The Time.

She heard him tap on his phone, he really needed to cut his fingernails, and then said, “You’re invited too. To go get ice cream.” She grunted again. “Is that a yes?” She grunted again, longer this time. “Marinette, that’s not helpful,” He sighed, “Yes or no?”

“Yes.” She pulled the pillow off her face, and threw it behind her to get up off the floor. He typed some more. 

“Thomas is coming too.”

“Oh fun.” She struggled to her feet, and had to stand still for a second to regain her balance. “I need water.” 

“Good thing you have a sink.” 

“Mh.” She grabbed her jacket before heading to the tiny kitchen area to grab a water bottle and fill it. 

She headed back into her room to grab a different outfit. 

She grabbed a pair of black leggings, and a pink jacket/skirt combo pea coat with big black buttons. 

“Out.” She pointed at the door, and he obliged. She changed, grabbed thick wool socks to put on over the socks she was already wearing, as well as thin gloves and earmuffs with little kitten ears on them. She headed out.

“Alright, here we go.” She grabbed a pair of light gray boots, and they went out.

  
  



	13. Chapter 13

“So, what do you plan on doing for the long weekend break?” Damian asked her in their english class one day.

“No fucking clue.” The professor was late, so she pulled out her sketchbook and started on this week's project for her design class.

“You aren’t going home? To see your parents?” He frowned. 

“I mean, I’m going home for Christmas, since the two week breaks longer, but I can’t afford to go home twice. Plus, this is only, like, three days off of school. Not really worth it.” The project was about taking styles from the early 1900’s and giving them modern twists. 

“Oh.”

“Plus, this vacation is about an american holiday. We don’t celebrate it in France.” She took a corset design, and put it over the top of a sleeveless dress, with leggings and a long wide jacket, before deciding she didn’t like it and started all over. 

“I guess that makes sense.” He nodded, and poked her in the ribs when the professor finally arrived, nearly twenty minutes late. 

“I’m so sorry,” She threw her jacket down onto her chair, “But some asshole stole my parking spot and I couldn’t find another one and then when I did it was so far away and I had to walk here, in the cold, and then the door was stuck and my key wouldn’t fit into it and I had to jam the ice out of the door,” She took a deep breath, “It was miserable.”

“I can imagine.” A girl in the front row nodded. 

“Suck-up.” Damian whispered, and she snorted so hard she almost choked. 

“Mean.” She whispered back.

“But true.” He tipped his head, and she pulled out a different pencil to start taking notes with. 

* * *

She considered what had happened after Halloween.

A friend had needed her, and she wasn’t really able to help him. That wasn’t very Ladybug of her.

Then again, in Paris, all of her friends had lived close by, and she had used a tiny vespa she hadn’t needed a license to drive, and it had taken less than twenty minutes to get to all of them.

In Gotham, her closest friend live nearly an hour away because he lived in a fucking fortress in the woods. Not really comparable to everyone else.

Sure, she was friends with the people in her gaming club, and a few of her design courses, but they all lived either on campus or close by, in walking distance. And she only saw them outside of scheduled times maybe once every three weeks, not really all that often, but Damian was different. She knew his siblings, had met with his family on multiple occasions, and saw them fairly often. If she had no vehicle, this could be a problem. 

Plus, next year, after midterms, they would start their interning. She would need a vehicle to get to her interning program, it was a necessity. 

But getting a driver's license was useless in a large city. She would never use a car when she could walk everywhere, or take the subway. It was a waste.

“Ugh, this is useless.” She grumbled to Tikki, who was sitting on the edge of the sink where she was brushing her teeth.

“Like, the drivers license is dumb, it’s useless, and I have no where to keep a car in Paris she pointed out. “Or to keep one here either, for that matter.”

“Maybe you could get a motorcycle license.” Tikki suggested quietly. “People will think you're cool if you have a motorcycle here.” Marinette considered it. 

“Ok.” She sighed. “But that doesn’t solve the problem of the big ass ocean in between here and home.”

“I’m sure your friend would be more than willing to take it from you for vacations, until you can bring it back when you move back to Paris forever.”

“Oh, true.” She didn’t really want to think about moving back to Paris permanently. Because she knew she would miss Damian. And as much of an ass as he was to Ladybug, Marinette was going to miss Robin too. 

She wondered if Robin was going to miss Marinette as much as Ladybug? But that was a problem for another time. Not a problem for right now. 

“Hey you.” Chloé called from the kitchen.

“Yo.” she yelled back.

“Yes?” Kagami asked from the couch.

“Uh, thoughts on going to Paris for the weekend?” Marinette sighed as she put her toothbrush back, and left the bathroom. 

“I’m certainly not going for such a short time if it's  _ that  _ expensive.” Kagami shook her head. 

“Same here. Apparently, I need to start saving for a motorcycle.” Marinette added. 

“Fine. I guess it’s up to me to tell our parents the short angry one and Biological send their regards.” She grumbled as she put dishes away. 

“Yeet.” Kagami had learned lots of slang from Zoo. Her favorites so far were ‘yeet’ and ‘rip’. Chloé just sighed. 

* * *

The break came around, and she had brought her sewing machine the school had issued her back to the dorm. 

“It’s Thursday. School got out yesterday. How have you already made a mess?” Kagami made a disgusted face as she nearly tripped over fabric leading from a table to the kitchen. 

“Because I have ideas, Gami.” She grumbled. “And I want to put them to good use.” Chloé had gone home that morning, and had been massaging her terrible updates from the airport until she was forced to shut her phone off for the plane ride.

“Ugh, fine.” She pulled a box of cereal down from the cupboard. “What are you making, then?”

“Well, the first thing I made was a beanie for Damian because he wanted one, but I won the bet, so I’m giving it to him for Christmas, but,” She snipped a thread as she pulled her latest creation away from the machine, “Now I’m just working on random things to sell on my brand website. I need to save up for a motorbike.”

“You are literally a millionaire.” Kagami mumbled in her bowl as she cleared a tiny space for herself at the fabric scrap covered table.

“Not really. I would be a millionaire if I were actively making millions constantly to be able to spend thousands of dollars actively, but right now the two million dollars is just sitting. It’s not going up, it’s not going down.” She hung the corset on the mannequin she had also borrowed, and found it a good fit. The front had metal clasps, but the back had ribbon that made it accessible to fit multiple body types. 

She made a few more in different sizes and shapes just in case. 

She had only learned how to make corsets recently, in one of her designing classes that had done a lingerie unit. 

When she had figured out she was actually pretty good at it, even though it wasn’t something she was interested in doing a lot of, she thought she could make a few things anyway. Show off her versatility for the fun of it. 

But this was for her brand. Her very special, very credible, very valuable brand. Her baby. She needed something special for her baby. So she special ordered an expensive red lace that she had designed the pattern of herself to have her name, miraculous-inspired shapes, as well as her circular logo in the pattern, to go over black silk fabric. 

By the end of the five day weekend, when she finally ran out of fabric, and spent nearly seventy hours working on this whole line, she had come up with fifteen pieces. Fifteen pieces, times the forty total yards of fabis it had taken, she wondered how to price that. 

“Ok, Tikki, help.” Her brain was absolutely fried. 

“Ok Marinette, what was the total cost of the fabric?”

“The black was $80 a yard, and I got twenty yards of it, which was $1600, and the custom lace was $150 a yard, times twenty is $3000.”

“Put together, that’s $4600.” Tikki added on Marinette’s calculator that was sitting on her desk. The money had come out of her business account, of course. “And $4600 divided by fifteen, is…” She hummed as she punched in the numbers. “About $307.”

“Ok.” She now knew the numbers but she still felt fried. 

“And the clasps you go to put on them?”

“Uh, lets see.” She reached for her little pink purse to grab the receipt out of it. “Three bags of six clasps came out to be twenty-one dollars.” Tikki started to do the math, but stopped. 

“That comes out to be like 85 cents per clasp. Times three is 2.55. And the ribbon was just the last of the black satin.”

“Right.”

“And what about the stiff stuff you used to hold it upright?”

“Leftovers from the class. Didn’t cost anything.

“That keeps your total at $309.55.”

“Ok.”

“But that’s what you need to break even. You want to add in how long you spent on each piece-”

“I have got to get better at writing my specific hours down.” She grumbled,

“But for now you can just say you spent about the same amount on each.”

“I’ve worked about fourteen hours each day on these, divide… no wait, fourteen times five.”

“...Seventy.”

“So…”

“So I divide seventy by fifteen.”

“Ok.”

“And I get five.”

“Sounds about right.” She mumbled. Tikki just shook her head at her. 

“That’s $309.55 plus five hours. How much are you putting your time worth at this time?”

“I don’t know. I used to put it at five dollars for every extra hour, but with what I’m trying to save money, I’m thinking more along the lines of… fifty? Seventy?” She picked her head up off of her bed, and frowned. When she had done her collaboration with Agreste, one of the senior designers had given her a very important piece of advice:  _ Never let someone else tell you what your value is. You always value yourself. _

“Which is it, fifty or seventy?” Tikki asked. 

“Seventy.” She nodded, and set her head back down. “That seems to be the magic number, this weekend.”

“Ok.” Tikki nodded, and plugged in the numbers. “Seventy times five, is 350.”

“Oh, shit.” Marinette mumbled. “We gettin paid today, bois.”

“And 350 plus 309.55 is $659.55.”

“Lit. I’ll round it up to six seventy. And maybe seven hundred for the bigger ones.” She didn’t crawl under her blanket, just pulled up the edges that were hanging over and wrapped herself up like a taco. 

Tikki smiled sadly down at the tired designer, and flew over to shut the lights out for her.

“Thanks, Tikki.” She mumbled into her pillow, and Tikki snuggled down beside her.

* * *

She headed into her morning math class, still feeling fried. 

“So, did you do the homework this weekend?” Damian asked her, and she gave him a horrified look. He snickered.

“Just kidding, Marinette. There was no homework.”

“How. Fucking. _ Dare  _ you.” She seethed. “You just gave me a fucking _ heart attack, _ you asshole.” She collapsed down into her chair, and waited for her heart rate to fall.

“Yeah, I can see you look exhausted, so I thought it would be funny.” He tilted his head, hints of a smile popping out.

“You are literally the fucking worst.” She pulled her supplies out of her bag.

“So, what did you do to warrant looking like that?” He teased. 

“Work.” She grumbled, throwing her pencil down on the table. 

“Wait, what? I didn’t know you had a job.” She raised an eyebrow at him.

“Really? You asked me to make you a hat for bragging right over Dick because you think I don’t have a job?” She sarcastically asked. 

“Oh, right.” He embarrassedly looked down at his notebook, and class started.

* * *

  
  


Lunch came, and Chloé sneakily got the last knife she needed to complete her set. She silently cheered herself on, until she headed for the door.

“Excuse me, I don’t think you put your knife back.” One of the attendants at the door noticed. 

“Oh shit, did I?” She frowned, playing dumb, and reached into her pocket. No, it was in her backpack. She knew that.

“Yeah, in the front pocket of your backpack. You had it in between your teeth as you were looking for something, then pulled it out with your hand, and when you accidentally put the knife in your bag instead of your pencil.” The young woman looked at her in a way that made Chloé realize she wasn’t being condescending, she believed it truly was an accident. She had fallen for the trick completely. 

“Oh my god, I’m so sorry, I’ll go put it away.”

“Chloé, did you accidentally steal a knife again?” Marinette popped up out of nowhere.  _ Shit. _ She thought. “Oh my goodness, you are so funny.” She put her arm over her shoulder as they walked back over to the counter. 

“Fuck you.” Chloé mumbled. 

“Ha!” She grinned at her, and then disappeared the same way she had appeared. Moving past her shoulder, and suddenly (not) there.  _ What is the point of buying new silverware? We literally just stole twenty forks. We don’t need any more forks. _

“Please remember to check to make sure you put back everything you took!” Another attendant yelled across the room. Ah. So they were on to them. At least now, they could stop. 

She wondered what kind of a meeting _ that _ had been.  _ ‘Uh, hey, so, we’re kinda rapidly losing silverware at a strangely faster rate than last year, can you put more engraved silverware in the budget? _ ’ She wondered how that had gone over. Maybe the higher-up faculty had been like ‘ _ Um???? No??? Get better at not losing the spoons??? Engraving is expensive??? _ ’ Or maybe they hadn’t bothered to mention it at all. Nah, that couldn’t have been the case. 

Anyway, she coudn’t worry about other people buying spoons and fork, she had some stupid silverware to buy herself. She had officially lost the bet. 

* * *

Marinette sat with Kagami across the table from Damian and Cass. She and Kagami were sitting on the bench side, facing the wall, and Cass and Damianwere sitting in chairs. Cass was on her phone, and probably texting Kagami even though she was probably ten inches away from her. Both of them were terrible at talking to people, but they were pretty good at talking to each other. 

They had learned Cass was the daughter of a champion fighter, as was Kagami, and they had really bonded over that. It had been a strange sight to see. 

“Here you are, have a nice day!” The overly cheerful waiter brought them a plate of fries and four milkshakes, and Cass lit up. Marinette found it quite cute. 

“What the fuck did you just do?” Marinette gave Damian a look of horror as he ate a french fry with milkshake on it.

“What?” He frowned. “Grayson told me it was completely normal.”

“Well Dick fucking lied to you, what the hell.” She watched as he shrugged, and did it again. 

“Try one.” Damian insisted. 

“Uh, no thank you.” She cringed. 

“No, seriously, you’re not allowed to say something is bad until you try it, and you really have to try this.” He dunked one of his fries in a little bit of his chocolate shake, and held it up to her. She made a face at him, and he pushed it towards her anyway. 

“It looks nasty!” She insisted, but he was adamant she should try some.

“Please just try it.” He poked her in the face with the shake-covered fry, getting some of the milkshake on her cheek, and she laughed. 

“Fine, ok.” She opened her mouth, and he held it out for her. She bit it out of his hand, and he gave her a disgusted look. She just giggled with her mouth closed as she chewed. He sighed, and she tried to wipe the milkshake off of her cheek as she swallowed the regretfully tasty fry. 

“You missed some.” He rolled his eyes at her, and reached over to get the rest of it with his thumb. 

“Thanks.” She stole one of his fries, and dunked it in his milkshake before eating it. 

“Hey, wait, what the fuck?” He gave her a look of utter betrayal, and she just grinned at him. Her phone dinged.

_ AmericanNinjaWarriorTM sent to the unnamed group chat: Help me, these two gross idiots are unhelpable _ .

“Kagami, what the fuck?” Marinette side-eyed her, but cleared the message so no one could read what it said. Her phone continued to ding, but she didn’t pick it up. 

“Alya says you’re a disappointment.” She informed her.

“Alya always thinks I’m a disappointment.”

“Adrien is coming to your defense.”

_ “My _ defense? He’s twice as dumb as I am, how the hell is he defending me?”

“Nino is helping him.”

“Oh god.”

“Meyléne is on Team Alya.”

“Oh great, the brain cells are all gone.” She stopped repeating everything, and Marinette decided to go back and check the chat later. She wondered what kinds of trouble she would find. 

* * *

  
  


She didn’t check the chat that night. She had completely forgotten until the next morning, when it was going off again.

**I will die with my phone in my hand** :  _ DOES SOMEONE WANT TO TELL ME WHY MARINETTE IS TRENDING ON AMERICAN TWITTER????!!!!!! _

She swore mentaly, and scrolled up to see what was going on. She had sent a screenshot of an article written in english. Some gossip bullshit about her and Damian, along with a picture from when he had rubbed the milkshake off of her face. But the real kicker was the title: _ Jagged Stone fashion designer and Agreste-ex Marinette Dupain-Cheng moving on quickly _ ?

**Lit as Shit mate** : _ Literally asdfghjkl _

**Road Work Ahead???** : _ I- _

**Tha Muthaphukkin SUN bruh** :  _ I deadass can’t with that fucking title. _

**WHO wants lasagna** :  _ Oh no. not again. Not fucking. AGAIN. _

**play me a song oh piano man** :  _ Quick, the americans have found her- _

**The Hottest Dupain-Cheng** :  _ What the hell _ .

**DJPurpleGrapeBoi** :  _ Marinette, can you confirm if you have broken poor Adriens heart and moved on to another boy? _

**The Hottest Dupain-Cheng** :  _ Literally Nino fuck off _

**DJPurpleGrapeBoi** :  _ Can you confirm the alligators?!!!!!! _

**Renegayed** : _ you mean the allegations??? _

**DJPurpleGrapeBoi** :  _ Ya, those too _ .

**The Hottest Dupain-Cheng** :  _ The zoo Alya’s dad works at has alligators, so I CAN confirm the alligators. _

**DJPurpleGrapeBoi** :  _ Thank you _ . 

**DJPurpleGrapeBoi** :  _ Much appreciated.  _

**DJPurpleGrapeBoi** :  _ Now.  _

**DJPurpleGrapeBoi** :  _ the allegations. _

**DJPurpleGrapeBo** i:  _ Confirming or denying that you have feelings for One Damian Wayne? _

**The Hottest Dupain-Cheng** :  _ Do we have to do this in front of everyone? _

**DJPurpleGrapeBoi** : _ Yes. _

**DJPurpleGrapeBoi** :  _ Watching you squirm is hilarious. _

**The Hottest Dupain-Cheng** : Y _ ou are literally??? On the other side???? Of the world??? _

**DJPurpleGrapeBoi** :  _ CONFIRM???????????? _

**DJPurpleGrapeBoi** :  _ OR DENY??????????????????????????????? _

**The Hottest Dupain-Cheng** :  _ Someone help me please. I can *see* you assholes lurking.  _

**The Hottest Dupain-Cheng** _ : It literally says ‘online’ to all of you right now. _

**play me a song of piano man** :  _ No this is funny _

**Lit as Shit mate** :  _ you are un deserving of help _

**The Hottest Dupain-Cheng** :  _ fuck you _ .

**Genius Billionaire Playboy Philanthropist** :  _ Undeserving is all one word _

**Lit as Shit mate** :  _ Oh fuck _ .

**Lit as Shit mate** :  _ you are  _ **_undeserving_ ** _ of help _ .

**WHO wants lasagna** :  _ JUST ANSWER THE DAMN QUESTION MARI. _

**The Hottest Dupain-Cheng** :  _ I’m denying!!!!! Obviously!!!! We’re just friends!!!!!!  _

**Go! Hench!:** _ Oh boo. _

**The Hottest Dupain-Cheng** :  _ You can’t boo my feelings, Sabrina!! ???!! _

**Go! Hench!** :  _ I will boo as I please _ . 

**Tha Muthaphukkin SUN bruh** : _ I agree with the boo _

**The Hottest Dupain-Cheng** :  _ Alix?????? _

**Tha Muthaphukkin SUN bruh** :  _ What? It was really funny watching you shittily pine after Adrien, this would be equally hilarious, if not even more. _

**Tall Blond and Handsome** :  _ Me Excuse???? _

**I will die with my phone in my hands** :  _ Alix what the hell!! _

**Tall Blond and Handsome** :  _ if it makes you feel better, it was no longer a secret.  _

**Tha Muthaphukkin SUN bruh** :  _ Whoa what?! _

**Tall Blond and Handsome** :  _ Yeah we had a good laugh over it. It was great _ . 

**The Hottest Dupain-Cheng** :  _ You weren’t supposed to tell them you knew! _

**Tall Blond and Handsome** :  _ YOU DIDN’T SAY THAT??? _

**The Hottest Dupain-Cheng** :  _ IT WAS IMPLIED??? _

**DJPurpleGrapeBoi** :  _ Alya.exe has stopped working _ .

**The Hottest Dupain-Cheng** :  _ Good. _

  
  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I did math for you fuckers.   
> I hope you appreciate my math.


	14. Chapter 14

She sighed, and picked up her laptop. She really needed to take pictures of those corsets to post so she could sell them. 

“Yo Chloé, you wanna be a model for me?” She yelled, and Chloé bounded in.

“Depends, what do you want modelled?” She gestured to the neatly packed corsets, and Chloé inhaled sharply.

“Is that an excited inhale, or an upset inhale?” Marinette raised her eyebrow over her phone that she was using to text some other people if they wanted to model a corset. Markus made the cut, as did Zoo.

“An excited one.”

“Good. I don’t have as many friends here, which means I have less models as well.” She also had no photographer as well, with the photographer that Adrien used being in Paris as well. 

But she could always make Kagami be her lights. 

“Where are you thinking of doing it?” Chloé gave her a cringing face. She usually did outdoor ‘candid’ style shots, but there was no doing that with these. 

“There are large white sheets in the design room for taking pictures with, I’m gonna pin those to a wall, and have all of you stand in front of the same white sheet.”

She grabbed one of the cardboard boxes they had used to mail their supplies over in, which was full of things she had made in her design class. One of which was full of the discards she had made from the lingerie unit. 

She grabbed a pair of black spandex and threw it at Chloé. 

“What’s this?”

“Put those on under some yoga pants.” She nodded. They were solid black save for her logo with ‘MDC’ and four circles that made a square around the letters inside a larger circle around everything. No one realised it was based off of her yoyo. Why would they?

“You didn’t make titty-hiders in this, what am I supposed to wear-”

“I have a plan, but only if you want to.” She offered. Her phone dinged a resounding yes from Zoo, and a somewhat hesitant yes from Kaz. 

“Oh no. What is it?” Chloé made a sour face, feeling like she knew what was going to happen.

“You can go before anyone else, and I take from the side, with you laying down on a table, with you back arched, but your head and a lot of your… upper-half… gets cut out.” Chloé thought it over,and eventually nodded.

“Ok.” She shut Marinette’s door, and started to unbutton her pants. “You have my permission to use at least some lower cleavage, but if I see even the tiniest bit of a nipple, I swear to fuck I will-”

“No! There will be no nipples on my nice credible website!” Marinette laughed as her phone started to ring. “Hey Kaz, what’s up?” She put them on speakerphone, and shooed Chloé out to go find some yoga pants.

“I, uh…” 

“Do you not want to do it?” She asked. 

“No, I do!” Kaz insisted. “I just, I think I should warn you about something first.” They confessed.

“Go for it.” She already suspected it was about a body deformity of some sort, Rose had been nervous about moeling a sleeveless crop top because of a scar from a heart surgery she had had as a little kid. 

“I do want to do this, really, I think it’s really cool, but I want to tell you that I have surgical scars from getting top surgery when I was in highschool two years ago.”

“You know what, Kaz?” She smiled at the phone, then realized that was dumb becasue they couldn’t see her. 

“What?”

“That honestly makes me want to use you even more.”

“What, why?”

“Because I feel like we need to normalise people with surgical scars in modeling.” It was true. She  _ did _ feel this way. “We need to normalise seeing people like you in the media, people who both do and don’t choose to have some scars, and show little kids that having them is ok.”

“Really?” The sophomore whispered.

“Really. Meet me in room 44 at Kennedy Hall in, like, two hours.”

“Ok.” Marinette swore she heard a sniffle, but didn’t mention it. Her phone dinged again. A text from Markus.

‘ _ I’m sorry, you want me to WHAT now???? _ ’ She snorted.

‘ _ Model. For me. In a corset. For my brand. _ ’ She tried to text as bluntly as possible.

‘ _ Uhhhhhh….. _ ’ He waited a few seconds before saying anything else. ‘ _ You know what, this is college. Fuck it. Let anything happen. I’ll do it.’ _

‘ _ Yisss. _ ’ She sent a silly emoji, and the time and place. ‘ _ Also I’ve been telling people not to wear makeup, but I don’t have to tell you that, do I? _ ’

_ ‘Asdfghjkl no’ _

_ ‘Good.’ _

She headed to the bathroom closet, and grabbed a big box out of it to throw supplies in. 

She grabbed various types of clothes she wanted to assemble together, and headed to the place she had told them to meet, an hour and a half before she had said. 

The doors were always left unlocked, even though it was sunday, just in case they needed something during a ‘creative burst’ one of the professors had put it. It had a guard, however. It wasn’t totally unattended. 

She headed in, followed by Chloé in her sweatshirt and yoga pants, and headed to the classroom she had said. 

She set the box down on a table, and opened a closet. The large white sheets were exactly where she thought they would be. 

She grabbed twoo, and instructed Chloé to help her set up. 

“The blinds close when you pull on the left one.” She told her, and the blind were shut. 

“Hello?” A voice called out from the doorway, and Chloé, still fully dressed, jumped. 

“Hey, Alfie, do you have what I asked for?” She called out from where she was pushing a table across the floor. 

“Uh, yeah?” He confusedly handed her a fancy new camera, and dragged in a rolling set of square tin lights. 

“Fantastic.” She took the camera and the tripod, immediately put a new SD card in it, and showed him where to roll the lights to. He adjusted the height, and Marinette climbed up onto a set of chairs to hang up the white sheet. “Thank you so much, you’ve been really helpful, but this is supposed to be a, uh, closed shooting, so um,-”

“Get.” Chloé said what she wasn’t able to, but he was already halfway out the door from the ‘closed shooting’. 

He shut the door, and Marinette jammed a chair under the door after he was gone. 

She set the second white sheet over the table, of which it was more than enough to completely cover, and Chloé stripped. 

“You know, this is not how I imagined my first time being nude in front of a camera would be.

“You aren’t nude, you idiot, you’re wearing spanx.” Marinette messed with the settings a few times before helping Chloé tie herself up in the corset. She pulled it quite tight, to the point she had a hard time moving in it. 

“How the hell did you make this?” Chloé grunted. “I feel somehow comfy as hell and like I’m about to burst at the same time.”

“Marinette magic.” She responded, and carefully removed the sticky note she had attached off of it. 

She took it and stuck it to the white sheet in the background, high enough it would be in the original picture and not the cropped version that would go in her page. 

“Alright, how hard is it to arch your back?” Chloé gave it a try, and it  _ somehow _ worked. 

“Lovely.” She snapped a few test pictures, then lowered the angle and took a few more. “Alright, I think I’ve got them.” Chloé sat up, and Marinette directed her to the next pose. 

“This strangely isn’t as difficult as I thought it would be.”

“Thanks.”

“You’re welcome.”

“Now take your hair out.”

“Yes ma’am.” She pulled out her ponytail, and let her waist-length blind hair fall down. Marinette moved it so that about half of it was down her back, and turned her head so her profile was just barely visible.

“You look great.” Marinette headed back behind the camera.

“I always look great.”

“Watch it, or I’ll DM your nipple to a magazine company’s twitter.”

“You wouldn’t dare.”

“I’ll leave you to their mercy.”

“Fucking cold blooded.”

“Keep your mouth shut, I’m trying to photograph you.”

“Oh, shit.”

She took a few more poses of Chloé before she started to set up again. 

“Preparing for your next victim?” A now clothed Chloé teased.

“Hey. Watch yourself.” She reached into her supply box, and pulled out her sketchbook and a pencil, turning it to a blank page. “I need you to keep records for me.”

“Sure.” She took the sketchbook, and started to doodle little cat paws in the corners. 

“Yo.” Someone on the other side of the door yelled. 

“Yo.” Marinette yelled back, and un-jammed the door.

“Hey Rat.” Kaz walked in, and Marinette re-jammed the door again. Kaz was told an hour sooner than Markus, and a half-hour before Zoo, who was next. 

“Hey. Strip.” She teased them, and they did. “All of you, by the way, not just the shirt. You need some different pants.”

“Also, I’m having a he/him day, if you don’t mind.”

“Not at all. Whatever you want, man.” She nodded, and went over to her box. She grabbed a specific number, and looked over at Chloé. “Hey.”

“Hey yourself.” She picked her head up. 

“Write Kaz, twelve-thirty, number six.” Chloé nodded, and wrote that down. She hung the number six towards the edge of the frame anyway. “Also, write yourself, number four, and twelve.”

“Roger that.”

“Hey, quick question, how do I…” She looked up to see Kaz struggling with the clothes she had set out for him. She set the front on his stomach, the bottom of it reaching his hips and the top part just below his ribcage. She started to lace it up, tugging it with a difficult jerk every so often. 

“Can you move?” He gave a thumbs up with one hand, rubbing his stomach up and down with the other, giving his new shape a test-feel as she folded the white sheet up onto the table, and pushed it out of the frame. 

“Stand here.” She pointed, and he moved to where she said. 

“Standing here.” He repeated. 

“Reach upwards, and throw your head back.” She instructed. He did as he was told. “Reach!” She teased, “Reach farther! Stand on your tiptoes! Try and reach for the ceiling tiles!” She took multiple pictures as he stood up on his tip toes, and strained his muscles to look how she wanted him to. It was successful, the muscle strain picture was what she wanted. 

“Can I come down now?”

“Yeah.” She laughed, and he relaxed. She took a picture of that too, with his shoulders sagging, his head tipped forward, breathing hard, and smiling at her like she was crazy. That was also an amazing photo. His fading bleached blue hair that was a little longer than Adrien's perfectly accented his absurdly pale skin. She was almost concerned that he didn’t get enough sun.

She did another where it was him facing to the right, his hips leaned out further than the rest of him, leaning back, and his right shoulder dropped lower than the rest of him, his arm dangling, and his left hand on his hip. She took a few pictures like that, and then a few more with his hands in the pocket of the pants he was borrowing for the shoot. Her mother had thought it was ridiculous she wanted to bring clothes with her that didn’t even fit her, but who was laughing now, huh?

“Give me one with you reaching out to the right, and look out where you're pointing. But keep your shoulders facing me.” She instructed. He followed orders. “Tip your head down slightly. Like you're trying to conquer a kingdom.”

“Or a person.” Chloé added from the sidelines. Kaz snorted. She snapped that picture, too. Not to post, just to have.

“Shut up, Chlo.” Marinette threw a pencil at her. He went back to where he was standing before he laughed. “Now one with you covering your face with your hands.” He re-situated his pose. “Stick your elbows out more.” He complied. “Nice.” She snapped more pictures, and called it quits. 

“Put your pants on before Zoo gets here.” he perked up. 

“Zoo?” He perked up.

“Hey, cool it, loverboy. They’re coming to work. You will  _ not _ distract.” Marinette pointed a finger at him, and he scrunched his face up before putting his shirt back on. 

“Bye, guys! Thanks for the opportunity!” He waved as he headed out, and Marinette yelled after him, 

“Thanks for helping!” She yelled after him. Only a few seconds passed by before they heard, 

“Hey! Zooster! Zoo Zoo pet! Zcooter bike! Zoot scoot and Boogy!” 

“Oh fuck off.” They heard someone tease back.

“I swear those two are hopeless.” Chloé mumbled. 

“Oh, agreed.” She dug around in her box of mysteries, and pulled out a big sweater. “What did you do with those spandex?”

“In my backpack.”

“Well, get them out. I need them.” Chloé sighed, and dug around in her bag. She tossed her the black spandex. 

“Hey.” Zoo walked in the un-blocked door. 

“Hey!” Marinette smiled at hre cheerfully for only a second, then immediately gave her a blank expression. “Strip.” Zoo choked, caught off guard.

“What?”

“I have clothes for you. Strip yourself.” She handed her the pile of clothes, and Zoo looked around awkwardly for a place to change.

“Oh, there’s a bathroom down the hall if you don’t want to use the closet.” Chloé pointed out.

“Fuck it, closets fine.” Zoo headed to the closet. 

“Yeah, we’re all experts on closets here.” Chloé giggled. 

“Oh, hell yeah.” Zoo grinned. 

They emerged wearing a thick beige sweater that had a collar so high it rolled down backwards to make a doubly-thick neck over the black spandex.

“You really think that you can fit that over this?” They frowned. 

“Why not?” Marinette countered. 

“Oh.” They wandered over, and Marinette messed with the corset. She had already laced this one, however loosely. 

She wrapped around Zoo’s waist, and used the clips to secure it loosely in place. She turned them around, and untied the loose ribbon to tighten it. 

She gave it a few good tugs, and it was secure. And cute. 

She gave the bottom of the sweater a good tug as well, since it had bunched up slightly. 

“Chloé, write Zoo, fourteen, and one o’clock.” She yelled. Chloé wrote. 

She pulled the table back out, and put the white sheet back down over the edge. 

“Hop up.” She patted the sheet, and Zoo climbed up onto it. 

“What now?”

“Ok, square your shoulders back, criss-cross your legs, put your hands in your lap, and top your head sideways.” Zoo did as told. “Pick your shoulders up slightly, and pull them back a little. Perfect.” She snapped a few shots that way. “Ok, now pick your feet up so your knees are by your face, but kinda facing outward, and unroll the collar slightly so you can pull it up over your nose.” Marinette had her adjust her hands slightly so she had one picture where the angle of the sweater was way higher on one end, and another picture where it was even across.

“Ok, now sit so you’re up on one leg, like your knees are on the table, and you're standing up on one knee, and your other leg is going out sideways.” It took them a second to figure out what she meant, but they got there. “Ok, great, now throw your hands behind your back, lazily, not dramatically, and stick your chin out slightly.” It was yet another successful picture. 

After Zoo was Markus. He was in a solid white shirt with her logo embroidered on the shoulder under the corset, along with black legging. They were her own leggings she had made for herself when her other ones didn’t fit quite right, so they were logo-less, but still. It was better logo-less than the wrong logo.

The next person was a tiny girl that was in Marnette’s history of fashion class, because Marinette knew she did yoga every morning. She wore a black bra Marinatte had been forced to make for the class along with a different pair of black spandex.

“I fucking love how the red lace compares to your dark skin.” Chloé gushed. “You look so adorable.” The girl, Amara, blushed. 

“Thank you.” She grinned. 

“Yeah. Anytime.” Chloé mumbled. 

Then she photographed a girl from the class she had learned how to make these with. Then Chloé invited Tony, and she photographed him shirtless as well. He was much tanner than Kaz, and much more muscular as well. Kaz would not appreciate being compared to this guy, but Marinette had to admit he looked good. 

Then she photographed a few more classmates, and that was it. 

Not every corset got to have it’s own shoot, some of them were the exact same size. She would just use the same models and different pictures for those ones. 

She packed everything up, and after a fairly long day of photoshoots, brought everything back to the dorm. She texted Alfie, told him she was done, and he came back to get his lights where she had left them. 

She sighed as she flopped down onto her bed, and opened her laptop to start downloading and editing pictures. She got them downloaded and she started to go through them to pick the best when her phone dinged. 

“Hey Kagami, come pretend to be me for a second.” She threw her phone at her sister as she walked through the door, and Kagami gace an evil smirk as she took a seat on Marientte’s floor cushion, and opened the chat.

**I will die with my phone in my hand** :  _ Marinette, are you even going to actually get around to naming this thing??? _

**Tall Blond and Handsome** :  _ I nominate we call it The Awesome People Of Paris And Super Best Friends. _

**Road Work Ahead???** : _ How about no _

**Tha Muthaphukkin SUN bruh** :  _ That’s literally so long Adrien what the hell _

**Tall Blond and Handsome** :  _ oh. true. :( _

Kagami put on her best Marinette impression: 

**The Hottest dupain-Cheng** :  _ Look at what you asshole’s have done. You’ve made my friend sad. Be ashamed.  _

_ Creator changed the chat to: Adrien is the Best _

**Tall Blond and Handsome** :  _ No!!!! I can’t be the best!!! Marinette, you’re the best!!! _

**Tha Muthaphukkin SUN bruh** :  _ Desgustang. _

**The Hottest Dupain-Cheng** :  _ you know what. _

**The Hottest Dupain-Cheng** :  _ Since I’m in such a changin mood _ .

**Tha Muthaphukkin SUN bruh** :  _ YOU WOULDN’T DARE _

_ Creator changed ‘Tha Muthaphukkin SUN bruh’ to ‘Desgustang’ _

**Desgustang** : Awe hell.

**play me a song oh piano man** : _ Get wrecked _ . 

_ Creator changed ‘play me a song oh piano man’ to ‘Get wrecked’ _

**Get wrecked** :  _ What the fuck did I do to you???? _

**WHO wants lasagna** :  _ No one say anything, she’s changing us to our messages! _

_ Creator changed ‘The Hottest Dupain-Cheng’ to ‘Biological’ _

**DJPurpleGrapeBoi** : That isn’t Marinette, is it?

**Biological** : Nope.

_ Creator changed ‘AmericanNinjaWorriorTM’ to ‘World’s Greatest Fencer _ ’

**DJPurpleGrapeBoi** : Fuck it’s Kagami.

**Biological** : Did you say something, punk?

**Tall Blond and Handsome** : Do you still think I’m the best, Kagami?

**Biological** : Always. 

_ Creator changed ‘Tall Blond and Handsome’ to ‘Tall Dumb and Conceited’ _

**Tall Dumb and Conceited** : What the hell.

_ Creator changed ‘Whoooooooosh with eight O’s’ to ‘Mrainbow’ _

**Mrainbow** :  _ I was???? LUrking????? I didn’t even say anything???? _

“What the fuck is going on in here?” Chloé barged in, confused. 

“What are you talking about?” Marintte frowned from where she was working.

“Kagami is changing everything in the chat.”

“Not currently my problem. Just as long as she doesn’t lock me out of Mod privileges, we’re good.”

“Wouldn’t dream of it. You would probably literally kill me if I took your status away.” Kagami grumbled, typing. “That’s something the two of you have in common.”

“Hey.” They both knew it was true, but wouldn’t admit it. 

_ Creator changed ‘Genius Billionaire Playboy Philanthropist’ to ‘Space Cadet Jr’ _

**Space Cadet Jr** :  _ Wait no I want to be Iron Man again _ .

**Biological** :  _ Sucks. _

**Get wrecked** :  _ Where is Marinette _

**Biological** :  _ I AM Marinette now. _

**Lit as Shit mate** :  _ No, we want Real Marinette. _

**Biological** :  _ Sucks. _

**Biological** :  _ She’s working _ .

**Biological** : _ Making that dough _

**Biological** :  _ Yeet. _

**Awe fuck. I can’t believe you’ve done this** :  _ Working?? During school?? She never does that! _

**Biological** :  _ Idk, she had some crisis about buying a motorcycle this morning, I think she’s saving up to buy one. _

**I will die with my phone in my hand** :  _ She doesn’t even have?? A motorbike license?? _

**Biological** :  _ She’s gonna get one. This summer. I think. Idk _ .

**Road Work Ahead???** :  _ Neat. She would look cool af on a motorbike. _

**Tall Dumb and Conceited** :  _ I know, right??? Literally so hot _ .

**I will die with my phone in my hand** :  _ Oh, so now that Marinette has moved on you call her hot? I see how it is. _

**Tall Dumb and Conceited** :  _ LET THIS GO, ALYA _

**I will die with my phone in my hand** : _ NO!!!! _

**Biological** : _ She’s working on the photos she took this morning, they look really really good. _

**Uh, yeah, I sure hope it does** :  _ So what did she make? _

**Bumblebitch Crinklesquares** :  _ Corsets. _

**Biological** :  _ Fancy fancy corsets. _

**I will die with my phone in my hand** :  _ Oh no way. _

**Awe fuck. I can’t believe you’ve done this** :  _ Fancy??? How expensive are they??? _

“Marinette, Rose wants to know how fancy is fancy?” Kagami asked, not looking up from the phone.

“Between $670 to $700 fancy.”

**Biological** :  _ “Between $670 to $700 fancy” She says _ .

**WHO wants lasagna** :  _ Oh shit. Really? _

**Biological** :  _ Deadass _ .

**Road Work Ahead???** :  _ No wonder she’s the most successful out of all of us. Next to Luka, of course. _

**Get wrecked** :  _ Dream team in the building. _

**Lit as Shit mate** : _ Oh fuck off _ .

**Biological** :  _ It’s me I’m back. _

**Tall Dumb and Conceited** :  _ Marinette!!!!! _

**Biological** :  _ Just kidding, it’s still Kagami. _

**Tall Dumb and Conceited** :  _ Oh this is just mean. Because I can’t actually tell _ .

**Biological** : _ sucks.  _

**Tall Dumb and Conceited** :  _ Ugh, it’s Kagami. _

**Biological** :  _ Yeet. _

_ Creator changed ‘WHO wants lasagna’ to ‘Minnie Phelps’ _

**Minnie Phelps** :  _ Oh hell yeah. _

**Biological** :  _ Love it while it lasts and MArinette comes back and changes everything again.  _

**Minnie Phelps** :  _ Screenshotting everything for the proof _ .

_ Minnie Phelps took a screenshot _

_ Minnie Phelps took a screenshot _

_ Minnie Phelps took a screenshot _

_ Minnie Phelps took a screenshot _

_ Minnie Phelps took a screenshot _

**I will die with my phone in my hand** :  _ Kim what the hell _ .

**Minnie Phelps** :  _ What? We say a ridiculous amount of bullshit.  _

**Renegayed** :  _ True. _

**Desgustang** :  _ Nath?? Have you been here??? The whole time??? _

**Mrainbow** :  _ He’s been lurking over my shoulder. _

**Desgustang** :  _ Oh, word _ .

**Biological** :  _ Ok, I’m leaving for real this time. Bye. _

_ Minnie Phelps took a screenshot _

“Alright, I’m gonna go make myself some instant ramen. Peace.” She threw Marinette’s phone back at her, and left. 

Marinette picked one picture of Amara doing a yoga pose on the table, one picture of Kaz reaching up on his tiptoes with strained muscles, and the picture of Zoo with the sweater pulled evenly over their face for the teaser images. 

She zoomed in fairly far, enough you couldn’t see the actual product itself, which was the point of a teaser post on instagram. She would post the actual products themselves as well as the full photo sets on Friday. Friday was a good day to post. Monday was a good day for teaser photos. 

It was the beginning of the second week of December, the sixth, so they would be nearly just in time for Christmas. She was going home on a wednesday, late in the evening after school, since this year Chsritmas was on a Friday and school was out for Christmas eve so it gave time for the foreign students to go home. Then they had two weeks off until January sixth, and then it started back up again on January seventh. She was going to post the teasers on the seventh, the next day, and have them go online on the eleventh. 

She would have to write that on the sticky calendar in the living room if she didn’t want to have to do the math twice. 

  
  



	15. Chapter 15

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> to the people who think they're oh-so-smart for saying me giving Damian panic attack is out of canon: Yeah no shit. I'm not doing this to be canon, fucking clearly. 
> 
> So please refrain from pointing out all the 'unrealistic' scenes, you will be here a while.

She sat on her roof monday night, and yet again Robin showed up.

“Ah, you again.” She smiled at him, and she could imagine the guy on the other side of the mask rolling his eyes. 

“Ah, me again.” He repeated in an exaggerated tone. 

“Have no one better to bother?” He took a seat down next to her.

“No one worthy of my time.” She snorted.

“You fucking wish you were worth mine.” She fired back.

“I’m hurt, Mousey.” He deadpanned, dramatically putting his hand on his chest.

“Sure you are.” She smirked, and showed him what she was working in her sketchbook. 

“What’s that?” He frowned. 

“The next unit we’re working on in school is about movie costumes, and how we might be asked to create strange outfits for a film or TV show, and so we’ve all been tasked with picking a movie with weird outfits in it, like a futuristic movie, and making a costume or outfit based off of that, and I picked Wonder Woman.”

“Hey, I’ve met her.” He nodded. “Wonderful Woman.” She giggled. “Why her, though?”

“Because I absolutely loved the costume design. In this movie, even though her personal outfit changes a lot, it was based off of Roman warrior design. I’ve seen the old Wonder Woman movies, and the outfits are always made to look sexy instead of functional which is… Upsetting.”

“Oh I fully agree.” Robin nodded.

“But in this movie, instead of the tall sexy boots, they gave her functional shin guards. The patterns on the Amazon’s outfits are designed to look like the rectangular layering pattern the Romans used, and I love it.”

“Huh. I never noticed that.” He took a closer look at her sketch. 

“Yeah, so I’m taking the  _ concept _ of making costumes based off of old military uniforms, like really really old uniforms, and making some designs that way.” She flipped the page, and showed him some sketches from different time periods. 

“Wow, that’s… actually pretty cool.”

“I swear you’re the only person who thinks that.” She grinned. 

“What? That you're really cool?”

“No, not really, I guess a lot of people think I’m really cool, but…” she trailed off.

“But what?”

“You’re the only person who’s actually interested in the entire creative process.” She confessed, “No one else listened with as much intent as you do. No one else pays as much attention, or stays as… engaged in my conversations.” Sure, Alya had been interested up to a point, but even the journalist got bored after a while. Robin was always excited to listen to everything she had to say. He was way different from the Robin Ladybug knew, and she almost had to wonder if it really was Damian again. Even though she swore to stop trying.

“I can’t  _ believe  _ that. You’re a really interesting person, to have the joy of looking into your mind is an amazing gift.”

“Imagine if the you who was disgusted with me the first time you talked to me heard you say that now.” She threw her pencil at him, and he caught it. 

“Hey.” He threw it back, and it was her turn to catch it. “True, but hurtful.”

* * *

Damian was having an absolutely shitty day. His father and Alfred were all busy with something his father was planning, Dick was away doing some adult thing, Stephanie and Tim were on some vacation somewhere, and Cass couldn’t drive. Todd and Harper were somewhere causing problems, god knows if it was on this planet or not. 

And after Father had found out he had used his car for a school project, he had taken the keys away. He had yet to get them back. 

Damian could drive just about any vehicle, he had driven dumb trucks, 18 wheelers, and even weird-ass hybrid tanks his father built. So getting to Uni shouldn’t be this damn difficult. 

But it was, somehow. 

He dug a reasonable sized knife out of it's box, and jammed it in the pocket of his sweatshirt. 

He grabbed his backpack, and marched out the front door down the long, winding, dirt driveway. 

He made his way to the subway, and pulled his hood over his head. The train car was fairly full, seeing as it was morning rush hour.

He hesitantly took a seat between an absurdly tall man and a hopefully normal-looking woman, and did his best not to flinch every time someone spoke. 

He realised how suspicious he looked, wearing all black and looking fidgety, but how was he supposed to explain that to people? _ ‘Yes, I know, I look very sketchy, but I promise I’m just nervous about absolutely everything.’  _

That’s probably why everyone hated him and his ‘ego’. He knew he was extremely intelligent, and probably better than everyone else his age because of his weird life experiences, but he also knew that he was constantly putting on an arrogant facade to boost his own confidence and not because he genuinely thought so. He did it because he _wanted_ to think so, not because he actually _did._ Two very different things. 

He got off the train at the University, and swore up and down people stared at him as he left. Maybe he should have left that knife at home. 

But what if someone had attacked him on the subway? No, he had needed that knife. But maybe he shouldn’t have brought it to school…

He headed into the math class he had with Marinette. She wasn’t there yet. Good.

He usually sat on the right side, and she sat on the left, but today he sat on the left side. 

* * *

She walked into her class, and immediately noticed Damian sitting in her seat.

“Do you have a fever?” She frowned at him. “Is someone in your head? Have you been hypnotized? Do I need to say chestnut three times to bring you back?”

“Fuck off, Marinette.” He sighed agitatedly. That just made her more confused. 

She sat down in his seat, and realized she could actually see the board much better from this angle. 

“No, seriously, what’s up?” She asked, and he twitched his shoulders. 

“You are right handed.” He said, as if that made everything obvious. She thought about it for a second, but came to no conclusions. 

“So are… you?”

“I am ambidextrous. I can write with my left hand if necessary. You  _ only _ use your right.” He held out his right hand, and she finally realised. “I have deemed today necessary to use my left hand.” He had moved seats so he could hold onto her hand without taking away her good writing hand.

“Oh. Ok.” She scooted closer to him, and class started. 

She had never written with only one available hand before, and the table was quite slippery, so she had a bit of difficulty keeping the paper from moving about, but eventually got the hang of it. 

But then Blondie in the front row needed to sharpen her pencil. The professor told her there was a pencil sharpener in the back of the room. 

Blondie got up and moved to the back of the room, and definitely noticed the hands. But she didn’t say anything. Not right then. 

* * *

But she did say something at the end of a lecture on wednesday. 

As Marinette was walking out after two exhausting hours of taking notes, she couldn’t help but notice Blondie seemingly seeking her out. 

“Hey!” She popped up next to her, and she sighed. This was not going to go over well. Marinette was tired, wanted to go home, and had a habit of saying whatever came out to mind, even if it was the very wrong thing to say. 

“Yes?” She asked, annoyed. 

“You know, I feel like we really got off on the wrong foot a few weeks ago.” She started. 

“No, I don’t think we did.” Marinette rolled her eyes. 

“What?” She stopped in her tracks, but Marinette took a few more steps before turning around to face her. 

“You called me a gold digger. You said I wanted to keep him for myself.” She saw the blood run out of the girls face, and she just sighed. 

“I really didn’t- I was just upset-”

“And for the record, we’re not dating, and yet  _ somehow _ I’m one  _ hundred _ percent sure you will  _ never _ be his type.” She smirked tauntingly, and turned around to head back to her warm welcoming couch.

She crashed down onto her couch, and pulled out her notebook to organize her notes when her phone went off. 

‘ _ Just saw Blondie stalking aggressively about, what did you do? _ ’

‘ _ Moi? Do something? How dare. _ ’

‘ _ Oh my god I was joking, Marinette what did you do?? _ ’

_ ‘She said she thought we got got off on the wrong foot and I said no the fuck we did not and she was like what and I saidfunny how I’m not dating him and yet I still know 100% that she wasn’t your type and she got mad _ ’ There was a while before he answered. 

‘ _ I just showed this to Grayson and now he’s about to crash the car from laughing so hard _ .’

‘ _ Oh no. _ ’ She opened up her notes file, and then thought of something. ‘ _ Hey, I noticed he follows me, what did he think of the teaser photos? _ ’ She started to type her notes out, and got her answer.

‘ _ He said ‘sexy a-f’ and that’s it. _ ’

‘ _ Thanks. Rest of the pictures and reveal coming tomorrow. Line going up Friday _ .’ 

‘ _ He says ‘nice’.’ _

_ ‘Thank yah.’ _

‘ _ He says he might get whatever it is as a gift for Steph if he can get his hands on one of whatever it is _ .’

‘ _ Tell him he can get one for himself if he’s not pussy enough. _ ’ She had decided to only end up selling fourteen of all of them, and keep the fifteenth just in case (It was actually number six that she kept, not the fifteenth). She had also decided to make the reveal post a day before they went up to create some extra hype for the product itself. 

‘ _ I don’t want to tell him that, he’ll just make it a challenge. _ ’

‘ _ No, I really want to see that. _ ’

‘ _ Marinette no. Please. No. _ ’

‘ _ Fine. I’ll let him borrow the one I’m keeping for myself, then. His stupid tiny waiste may actually be able to fit in it.’ _

‘ _ Is that a hint??? _ ’

‘ _ NO!!!! _ ’ She finally went back to her notes long enough to actually get through them. 

* * *

She debated posting before or after class. If she posted before class, she wondered about being nervous to see people’s reactions. If she posted after, she wondered if it would just straight-up be weird to post so late in the day. 

She decided to go with after, so she wouldn’t be distracted all through class. 

Instead, she thought about christmas presents. She did most of her shopping online since her bank accounts were all still in Paris and she had really not a lot of ways to access it from Gotham. She had all of the presents shipped all of the boxes to the bakery so she could wrap them all on Christmas eve, and hand them to all of her friends on Christmas. 

“Brown is waiting impatiently.” Damian informed her. She almost had to take a second to remember that it was Stephanie. It sometimes confused her when he referred to them as their last names, which she was not completely sure of yet. 

“What about you? Do you have post notifications turned on for me?” She teased. 

“Obviously.” He rolled his eyes, and she froze. 

“Wait, shit.”

“What? Leave everything at home again?” He frowned at her.

“No, I just realised you only follow my company account.” She pulled out her phone, and showed him her other page. “@ Marinarasauce.” She whispered as the professor walked in. He sneakily pulled out his own phone, and searched her. He found it, privated, and requested a follow. She immediately accepted. She already followed him back, he only had the one account. He would have to work on making a second one, he guessed. 

She only knew about it because after mentioning he had found it, she had searched his name to see if he had followed it. He had. 

“Nice.” He was sitting in his own seat today, back to where they had been before. 

* * *

After calculus and her History of Design class, she had a fairly long break before her Intro to Pattern class. It was a pretty funny class, but still. Useful. 

She headed back to her dorm instead of just waiting around doing work in common areas. 

‘ _ Marinette help. _ ’ Damian texted her.

‘ _ What why and where are you? _ ’

‘ _ Help, Blondie, and headed to your dorm pretending to look for you _ .’

‘ _ Good news, I’m already there _ .’ She held off posting another five minutes as she headed downstairs to open the door for him. 

“What the hell happened? Glaring at her didn’t work?”

“It didn’t work on you, maybe I’m broken.” He grumbled as he stalked to the stairs.

“Hey idiot.” She yelled at the back of his head. 

“What?”

“They fixed the elevator, like, a month ago.” She pushed ‘up’ and he trudged back over. 

“Oh.” They got on, and she pressed five. 

* * *

  
  


She let them into her dorm, and he dragged her floor cushion out into the living room. Chloé wasn’t far behind them, coming in a few minutes later. 

“Yo.” She yelled, and Damian waved. “You getting around to posting yet, or not?”

“Oh shit.” Marinette opened her laptop, and thirty seconds later Damian's phone dinged. 

“Oh, wow, look at that.” He deadpanned from the floor. “Official MDC made a post.” He opened the message, and was met with a full version of the zoomed in picture of the person in a light brown sweater. She was wearing a black and red lace corset, and he swiped to the next picture. Same thing, different model. This one had no face. 

He squinted at the middle half of the topless model, and looked over at Chloé. The same shade of skin. 

“Is that… you?” He asked, turning his phone to show the picture. She blushed furiously, and he took that as a yes. 

“Fuck you,  _ Biologique _ .” She grumbled. Marinette just laughed. 

“Organic?” He frowned at the two of them. “Why did she call you organic?” Marinette stood up from the couch and walked over to Chloé in the kitchen.

“Do you recall when I said she was adopted?” She gestured to the difference in their faces.

“Oh, right, it also means biological.” He remembered, and went back to what he was working on before. 

“Is you are have stupid?” Marinette teased. 

“Fuck you, I speak seventeen languages, so excuse me if I forget a double meaning.”

“Wait, no, deadass?” Chloé raised an eyebrow, “I can barely handle two.”

“Suck my ass Crinklesnatch, I can do three.” Kagami mumbled as she walked out of her room. 

“How long have you been listening?” Chloé squirted Easy Cheese directly into her mouth.

“Long enough.” She stole the Easy Cheese while Chloé was still squirting it, dripping it down her chin and shirt. She screeched in response. 

“How have I forgotten what life was like before you two?” Marinette sighed, making notes for her notes from her design history class. She was purposefully ignoring her phone. 

“You love us so much you willingly forgot.” Kagami said as she whacked Chloé in the back of the head.

“That can is made of metal, asshole!” She yelled through the crackers and cheese in her mouth, rubbing her head. Marinette just sighed. 

She finished with her notes, double checked her homework for her Intro to Pattern class, and decided to start a dough to finish when she got back from her class. 

She finished preparing the dough, letting it rise while she was in class, and planned on putting it in the oven when she got back. 

“I guess if your leaving that means I have to leave too?” Damian sighed.

“Nah, you can stay if you want.” Marinette had gotten crocs as a gift from Tony when he had realised she had no idea what crocs were. He had insisted they were an American staple, saying that ‘every cool uni student has Crocs.’ She hadn’t believed him, but they were incredibly efficient, she had to admit, even if they were ugly as hell.

“Yeah, we won’t kill you.” Kagami encouraged him. 

“Plus, Chloé needs some new Uno victims. She’s scared off the last few.”

“Hey.” Chloé frowned, already digging out the cards. “Hurtful. True! But hurtful.”

“Suck my ass.” She headed out the door.

“You forgot your phone!” Kagami yelled.

“No I didn’t!” She yelled as the door shut behind her. She figured leaving it behind would subside her wanting to go through every comment posted on the new pictures. 

She was wrong. 

She wiggled all throughout the class, and Amara kept giving her a weird look. 

“Are you ok?” She whispered over to her. 

“Not in the fucking slightest.” She whispered back, tapping her pen furiously on the table. 

“What happened?”

“I posted the pictures onto my instagram. They go up for sale tomorrow, I’m so nervous.”

“Wait, what?” Amara stopped whispering. 

“Ms. Bea, if you please?” The professor gave her a tired look. 

“Amara, you know I made those with the intention to sell them, right?”

“No! You somehow missed that part!” She whispered, somewhat shocked. Marinette frowned at her. 

“Amara, you just modelled a seven hundred dollar corset. Why else did you think I gave you a big check for modelling?”

“I thought you were just being really nice!”

“If I were being really nice, and had my full capabilities, I would have paid you much more.”

“Well shit.” She whispered. “Maybe I should have gone into modeling instead of designing.”

“You’re definitely pretty enough to do so.” 

“You really think so?” 

“Chloé certainly seems to, and trust me. She’s a former spoiled brat, she knows a pretty face when she sees one.” Amara snorted, and they got another glare. 

  
  



	16. Chapter 16

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> I almost accidentally uploaded chapter 18 on accident haha
> 
> anyway. 
> 
> Here we go boiz

“Fuck you!” Marinette seethed. She was filled with pure unadulterated rage. She hadn’t felt such anger in years, yet here she was. Staring at her enemy, and packed with such emotion she was near tears. “WHY WON’T YOU RISE YOU STUPID DOUGH!” She yelled, and kicked the cabinet door. 

“Are you ok?” Damian frowned at her over the top of his hand of cards. They were still playing the same game they had been playing since she had left. They had a double deck, and had re-shuffled it twice. 

“Fine.” She grumbled. “Perfectly fine.” She somewhat aggressively turned the stove on, and put on a pot of boiling water. She was going to make the Marinette Soup her uncle had made when he visited her in highschool. She had the flowers because Kagami had found some, and demanded Marinette Soup. 

She had been told Marinette Soup was quite popular at his restaurant in China. Every once in a while, and on her birthday, he would send her a holiday envelope with a small amount of money and the words ‘ _ Your royalties for your soup :) _ ’ It was very sweet.

“Chloé, salt.” She yelled, and Chloé threw the salt that was on the table at her. She caught it, and uncrewed the top to put some out into a teaspoon. 

“Did we run out of boxed salt?” Kagami frowned. 

“Yeah, I poured the last of it in here.” She answered. 

“Ha!” Damian apparently drew a good card and forgot to play poker face. 

“Damian, do you want to stay for some Me soup?” She asked as she pulled carrots out of their small fridge. 

“Some… you?... Soup?” He frowned, tilting his head in confusion. 

“Yeah, I have a famous soup named after me.” She grinned at him. 

“No way.” He fought a smile, and she pulled up the website to prove it. 

“See? It’s Me soup.”

“So it is. Does it have meat in it?” He tried to read the ingredients list.

“Nah, no meat.”

“Yeah, then I guess I’ll stay and find out what this You soup is all about.” She grinned, and started to put it all together, flower petals and all, to let it simmer.

She sat back down at the table, and finally caved. She opened her company instagram, and started to read through the comments. 

**Alyas_journal** _ This is so hot!!! 1000/10, you’ve really done it this time!! _

**Rosewithnothorns** _Cute!!!!!_

**DJNino** _oh shit this is actually kinda cool tho_

**Miraculous-fangirl** _Ah!!! I can’t wait!!!_

**SummertimeSteph** _oh I wish I could have one of those!!!_

Marinette wondered if it would be unfair of her to save one out for her. Probably, but hey. This was her company. She could run it however she wanted to.

She checked her email. So many people had asked to have one saved for them, like a pre-order, but she never did pre-orders. That just kinda seemed unfair, if something was a limited edition and you tried to claim it before someone else. 

But it also made her somewhat proud. That she was popular enough that people were willing to fight for something she made. 

Well, it helped that she made outfits for Clara’s music videos, and designed special custom Items for Jagged Stone, which led to her doing other special projects for famous artists in her spare time. 

She set up the webpage, just the way Max had shown her, with all the fourteen different pages to upload at the same time when she hit go the next morning. 

It was her first launch in a pretty long time. Since all of her clothes were one of a kind, her being young and all that, most of them sat on her webpage for at least a few months before someone actually bought them since they only fit specific body types. She made the most money from her collaborations with major labels who made mass copies of something she designed and gave them the right to use for so much money. 

Like the pride section of her website. It was a collaboration with a major jewelry company, where they were all pendants with varying color patterns. The things they all had in common were a pendant with her logo, and pendant with the brand logo, and a wider pendant with “Love Yourself” written in her own handwriting. It had happened because it was suggested to her by a higher-up at Agreste who had offered to set it up with a friend at the company after she had worked for more than a few famous rock stars. The pride design had been her idea. 

But that had been nearly a year and a half ago. This was her first big solo launch. She was… well, to say she was nervous was a little bit of an understatement. She felt like her insides were boiling over. She now understood how Damain had felt at that football game three months ago. She set her phone down, and walked away from it. 

“Me Soup is done.” She called from the kitchen, and dug out some bowls. 

Kagami and Chloé got some for themselves, and Marinette got one for herself and one for Damian. 

“Thanks.” He mumbled, looking at his hand suspiciously. Chloé dealt her in as she drank some of the soup through her straw. 

“Fucking weirdo.” Kagami shook her head at her.

“Hey. This is fucking delicous through a straw.”

“You’re still a fucking weirdo.” Kagami insisted. 

“Ok. Other fucking weirdo.” The game restarted. 

  
  
  


She had a hard time sleeping that night, which was not good since she wanted to get up early to post the items. 

And just as she was about to finally fall asleep, her phone rang. 

“What the actual fuck.” Marinette grumbled. 

“I saw Nathalie today.” She shot upright, nearly banging her head on a shelf. 

“What?”

“What do you mean  _ what _ ? You said to go for it!” Adrien defended himself. 

“I know, I just figured you would give me a heads up!” She grumbled, and then realized she had to pee.

“Oh, sorry.” He mumbled, and she rolled out of bed to go to the bathroom. 

“No, don’t apologize.” She sighed. “It was your choice to do whatever you want and I shouldn’t get in the way of that.”

“Oh.”

“Anyway, how did it go?” There was a silence, and she wondered if he was thinking, didn’t want to answer, or had just fallen asleep. 

“Not good.” He finally answered.

“Do you want to talk about it?” 

“Not really. Not right now.” 

“Ok.” There was another long pause. “We can talk whenever you want to.” 

“Are you going home for Christmas?” He seemingly changed the subject.

“Uh, yeah. All three of us are.”

“Can I come live with you for the week?” She bit her lip. Her house was kinda full, but… there was always room for one more. 

“Yeah. I think we have an air mattress, you can come stay with us. But we’re actually staying for two weeks, not one.”

“Thank you.” He whispered. “I don’t want to be in that giant house alone.”

“I know.” They hung up, and she went back to bed. Great. Now she was awake again. 

She plugged her phone in, and opened the group chat.

_ Creator changed ‘Tall Dumb and Conceited’ to ‘Sunshine boy’ _

  
  


The next morning, she woke up at seven a.m. to stare nervously at her laptop. She waited a few minutes before hitting ‘post pages’ to her website. She immediately slammed her laptop shut, and shoved it under her pillow in a fit of nerves. Fortunately, she was quickly distracted by her phone going off. 

**Sunshine boy** : _ Oh hell yeah I’m the fucking sunshine boy now bitches. Alix can suck my ass. _

**Desgustang** :  _ what??? Did I do??? _

**Get wrecked** :  _ you used to be ‘Tha muthaphukkin SUN bruh’. And now he’s Sunshine boy. So. You can suck his ass bc he’s the new sun. _

**Desgustang** :  _ No. I don’t eat ass. _

**I will die with my phone in my hand** :  _ TMI _

**Desguatang** :  _ You're a journalist, you want to know everything. _

**I will die with my phone in my hand:** _just because I'm a jornalist doesn’t mean I want to know if you actively eat ass or not._

**I will die with my phone in my hand** :  _ WAIT _

**I will die with my phone in my hand** : _ NO _

**I will die with my phone in my hand** : _ I MEANT JOURNALIST _

**Biological** :  _ TOO LATE _

_ Creator changed ‘I will die with my phone in my hand’ to ‘Jornalist’ _

**Jornalist** : _ awe fuck _

**Minnie Phelps** :  _ Hey Marinette did you just make a new thing today?? _

**Biological** :  _ I??? Added some things to my company?? Why??? _

**Minnie Phelps** :  _ Max just got notified a website he designed crashed. _

**Biological** : _ Awe shit.  _

_ Renegayed changed the chat to ‘Biological ruined Max’s hard work _ ’

**Biological** :  _ Hey wait _

**Biological** :  _ How did _

**Biological** :  _ How did you do that???? _

**Renegayed** :  _ Kagami gave me the password to chat modifications _

**World's greatest fencer** :  _ guilty. _

**Biological:** _Gami what the hell_

**World's greatest fencer** :  _ What? It’s funny!  _

**Biological** :  _ Great, now I have to change the password.  _

**Renegayed** :  _ Wait, one more thing before you block me out _

_ Renegayed changed ‘Go! Hench!’ to ‘Guilty Glitter Monster _ ’

**Guilty Glitter Monster** : ??????

**Biological** :  _ Ok, maybe you can stay. Maybe. _

**Biological** :  _ But if you block me out I will personally kill you. _

**Renegayed** : _ noted.  _

**Jornalist** :  _ hey what the hell _ .

**Mrainbow** :  _ oh good, you can change me back to whoooooooosh. _

**Renegayed:** _ I’ll consider it. _

_ Renegayed changed ‘Mrainbow’ to ‘Bottom’ _

**Bottom** : OH HELL NO

**Bumblebitch Crinklesquares** _ : asdfghjkl MARINETTE LET HIM STAY _

**Biologica** l:  _ Oh yeah, he can stay. _

**Bottom** :  _ No!!!! _

**Renegayed** : _ Oh hell yeah _

**Biological** :  _ But you're on probation. _

**Guilty Glitter Monster** : _ I disagree, he should be banished from Mod privileges. _

**Renegayed** :  _ I promise I’ll be good _ .

**Sunshine boy** :  _ Should I sell my dad's monstrous house??? _

**Road work ahead???** :  _ wtf, that was random. _

**Sunshine boy:** _On one hand it makes me sad, so I don’t want it, but like, that’s his evil house. His house full of evil. And my dead mom lived in the basement for like seven years. I don’t think that would sell very easily_. 

**Jornalist** :  _ sell it to conspiracy theorists. They would love to buy a house full of evil. _

**Uh, yeah, I sure hope it does:** _I hate how true that sentence is_.

**Biological:** _Won’t know until you try_.

**Sunshine boy** :  _ true _ .

Marinette decided to set her phone down, and check her emails. She figured maybe one or two had sold, but when she opened the company email account she found fourteen unread emails. 

She rushed to open a new tab, and quickly messed with her website, which had in fact crashed but was now fixed, and removed all of the ‘new’ items. She wondered what to do next, and decided to make an insta post about it. 

**OfficialMDC** _Oh wow!!!! This was clearly very popular, seeing as it sold old almost immediately. I wonder what will happen when I finally have more free time???…_

She attached a picture of Tony biting on a piece of saran wrap and scrunching his nose that hadn’t made the original cut. 

She went back to her emails and looked at who ordered them. The top one was Clara Nightingale, and Marinette blushed. She still couldn’t believe she was lucky enough to be on speaking terms with her. 

The second was Dick Grayson, and she silently congratulated him on making it just barely in time. In the special instructions section it said ‘ _ gift for Steph, don’t tell!!! _ ’ She understood. 

The next few were random people she didn’t know, then she saw Penny Rolling. Penny was always excited to support everything she did. That made her very excited. The next few were more people she didn’t know, but the very first one was… Rose. She frowned, and opened the email. It was the standard notification, and in the special instructions was ‘ _ Present for Juleka, please don’t tell the chat!! _ ’ She texted her instead. 

‘ _ ROSE WHAT THE HELL’ _ She sent her.

_ ‘I’M SORRY I’VE BEEN SAVING TO BUY HER SOMETHING SUPER NICE AND I GOT THIS. _ ’ She answered.

‘ _ YOU COULD HAVE COMMISSIONED SOMETHING, YOU WOULD HAVE GOTTEN A SUPER-AWESOME-PERSON DISCOUNT I PROMISE _ ’

_ ‘YOU’RE COMMISSIONS ARE CLOSED OR I WOULD HAVE _ ’

_ ‘THE COMMISSIONS ARE CLOSED TO THE PUBLIC, YOU ARE MY FRIEND AND I LOVE AND RESPECT YOU ENOUGH TO MAKE SOMETHING SPECIAL FOR MY OTHER FRIEND WHO I ALSO LOVE AND RESPECT. _ ’

‘ _ OH I DIDN’T THINK OF THAT I’M SORRY. _ ’

‘ _ WELL NOW IT'S TOO LATE, YOU ALREADY PAID FOR IT. _ ’ She did love Rose, but she did also need the money right now. 

_ ‘WHY ARE WE YELLING? _ ’

‘ _ BECAUSE I WAS CONFUSED. WE CAN STOP YELLING NOW _ ’

‘ _ Oh yay. _ ’

‘ _ No but seriously, I have leftover beanie material from something I made for Damian, I could have made her one too. _ ’

_ ‘Oh. maybe for her birthday, that’s in a few weeks. _ ’

_ ‘Is that a request? _ ’

‘ _ Yeah. I would like to order one beanie _ .’

‘ _ Cool. This is the one I made for Dami, would you like to have it in pink instead of green _ ?’ She attached a photo of a black beanie with a bright green embroidered circle with ‘MDC’ in the middle, and the square of circles inside the bigger circle around her name.

‘ _ Yeah, she could like pink. _ ’

‘ _ I’m thinking like a bubble gum pink _ .’

‘ _ Yeah. _ ’

‘ _ Ok. I’ll do that for her birthday.’ _

‘ _ Thanks _ .’

‘ _ And you’ll only have to give me like five bucks with the Best Friend discount. This is just solid black, and it’s not very expensive. And the embroidery isn’t very difficult, I have that pattern programmed into my machine. _ ’

‘ _ Noice. _ ’ She headed out of the dorm and down to the local post office to see if they had spare boxes she could send them with. And maybe some tissue paper too. And some blank labels. And maybe a few more things. 

She borrowed Kagami’s printer to print some sticky labels, to mail thirteen of the fourteen she made. She also kept the fourteenth one that she wrapped in a nice fancy box, and saved it for Dick.

She wrapped each of her corsets in white tissue paper held together with a big round sticker with her logo she had designed. 

She stuck that along with care instructions (she had learned those in class too) and a personalized handwritten note on a small card. 

She made all fourteen special notes, with a little twist on all of them. Of course, the ones for Steph and Penny were a little more personal than the ones for the people she didn’t know, but all of them were still special nonetheless. She was going to deliver Dicks to him by hand. That was less money she had to spend on postage. The cost of shipping was added onto the total price anyway, but still. Less money on shipping. And also, it now came in a prettier box. 

  
  
  


Ladybug sat on a rooftop alongside Ryuko and Robin. They watched Chaton Noir attempt to fight Harley Quinn while simultaneously avoiding her grabs while yelling “Kitty!”

It was not a very successful ‘fight’, because only one party was fighting while the other party was attempting to hug it out. 

“How long until we let her know we’re here?” Robin asked. 

“Give it a few more minutes, this shit is hilarious.” Ladybug shook her head. 

“What the hell is that?” They jumped as Red Robin appeared out of nowhere. 

“A Chat fight?” Nightwing, on the other side, also made her jump. 

“No, it would be a cat fight if Catwoman were here.”

“She is.” Robin pointed behind Harley to where Catwoman was talking to some old woman in an alley. “She tried to cuddle Chaton, and she freaked out. That’s what is going on here, too.” 

“No kidding.” Nightwing laughed. 

Chaton had come across Catwoman robbing a pet store. Sure, it was to feed cats that lived in an ally and needed it, but still. Robbing a store? She had to stop that. 

“Oh, mini me! Have you come to stop my crime?” She had grinned when she had seen her, not at all the least bit upset. She also seemed to be reaching out for a hug.

“You know that cat food really isn’t even all that expensive, right?” Harley popped up on the other side of the aisle. 

“Yeah, but the owner was an asshole to me when I tried to buy it normally, so now we’re taking it because fuck that guy.” She nodded her head aggressively. 

“Well, uh, I’m still going to have to at least try to stop you.” She readied her baton, and Catwoman kicked her in the stomach. She stumbled a few steps back, but the magic absorbed most of it.

“Oh wow. The last person she did that to, flew out a window.” Harley marvelled at her. “Come here kitty, Let me hug you better.”

“No!” Chaton pointed her baton at her instead. 

“Come here!” They somehow got the fight outside, and Chaton tried to fight her off for nearly ten minutes of Harley insisting she needed a hug until she realised she had an audience. 

“Get down here, you assholes!” She yelled up. 

“No, this is funny!” Robin yelled back. 

“Argh!” She was finally caught by Harley, who surprisingly really did only try to hug her and not, in fact, kill her. 

Ryuko slid over the edge of the building, falling straight down for nearly twenty stories, but before she hit the pavement teleported a few inches from Chaton. 

“Ok, all done!” Catwoman yelled, and Harley let go. 

“Bye bye, Kitty!” She waved, and Chaton glowered at her. 

“Get back here! Fight me like a woman!” She yelled, but quickly lost track of the bright blond. 

  
  
  


**Biological** :  _ Looking for ways to make extra money while still in school, someone help me. _

**Sunshine boy** :  _ oooh let me think _

**Desgutang** : S _ ince when did you need money?? _

**Biological** :  _ Since I needed a vehicle and a license to be able to go see my lovely friends and get around with. _

**Desgustang** :  _ fair _

**Sunshine boy** :  _ I GOT IT! _

**Biological** :  _ Shoot. I’ll take anything at this point.  _

**Sunshine boy** :  _ you know how you usually have like ten commission spots open in the busy season aka summer? And then you never take on new commissions until all ten are done? _

**Biological** :  _ Yeah??? _

**Sunshine boy** :  _ And your commissions are closed for school, right??? _

**Biological** :  _ Yes??? _

**Sunshine boy** :  _ do like a Christmas Special Event where you re-open like three commission spots to do over holiday WITH A TWIST!!! _

**Jornalist** :  _ asdfghjk what’s the twist??? _

**Biological** :  _??? _

**Sunshine boy** :  _ Auction off the commission slots!!! Like a bid!!!! _

**Biological** :  _ That’s… not a terrible idea… _

**Sunshine boy** :  _ But you’ll have to keep track of the next-highest bidders in case you don’t like what someone sends you.  _

**Biological** :  _ I was somewhat joking but I think I’ll actually take you up on that _ .

  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  



	17. Chapter 17

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> I've got a problem.

Ok, so, um, I kinda owe everyone an explanation. 

I write super randomly. I upload a metric fuckton of content at once, never finish any of it, and never seem to have any real end to anything I post. 

That's because I have [DID](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dissociative_identity_disorder). Dissociative Identity Disorder. 

I have several different people in my head, they take over randomly, and they all have their own names. 

More than that, they all have their own lives. Likes, dislikes, interests, hobbies. They kind of are their own people. 

I'm so random because only _one_ of these people likes fan fiction. Most of them like stories, but only one of them writes and posts. 

I apologize that these are so random, but my excuse is that I'm only posting when that one alter is in charge of the body and what it's doing. 

One day one of these alters may up and delete the whole account if they decide it's necessary, and the alter who created it will be absolutely livid lmao, but the one who delete's it won't be the one who created it. 

And one day one of the other alters may delete a work if they think the dedication to it is taking too much space in my head, and I can't control that. 

These people in my head, they exist to decide what's right and wrong, and quite often they disagree. 

I'm sorry this is so weird, you don't really have to understand it, this is just me giving an explantation as to why I seem to disappear so often. And why when I come back, I come back and post things all at once. 

My bad. 

Sincerely, someone who is definitely _not_ named Jae lmao. 


	18. Chapter 18

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Oh look I remembered I wrote the, uh, six months ago????????
> 
> Holy shit it's been a really long time lmao.

The plane ride back to Paris was not very pleasant. The plane was somewhat loud, full of little kids and big families headed to see other families for the holidays. 

When they finally landed, she was greeted at the airport by a bouncy Adrien. 

When he saw them, he ran over and hugged Marinette so tight her feet came up off the ground. 

“I literally talked to you two days ago.” She grunted, exhausted. 

“Not the same thing.” He set her feet back on the ground, but didn’t let go.

“Adrien, how am I supposed to drag my suitcase and hug you and walk at the same time?” She sighed, and he finally let go. 

He gave Chloé a big hug as well, but Kagami and him were still weird about that one time they had dated three years ago. They nodded at each other, but moved on. 

They made their way to the bakery in Adriens car, and Mairnette noticed it was different. She wondered when he had had the time to get a new car. 

“Maman!” She jumped out of the car to hug her mom, early christmas eve morning. The plane ride had been over night. 

“I missed you, Marinette!” Her mother hugged her as well, and then she hugged her father so the others could hug them as well. 

“I missed you too.”

The three girls brought their stuff upstairs, and Marinette threw open the hatch to her room to take a nice nap in her bed before heading to Alix’s for a class Christmas Eve party when she tripped on an air mattress.

“Oh shit!” She fell over, and slammed into a chair full of cardboard boxes.  _ Damn, I still have to wrap those _ .

“You’ve been back for ten minutes, and you’re already breaking things.” Adrien teased her. 

“I wasn’t expecting it to be there!” She insisted, hauling herself to her feet and dragged herself up her ladder to collapse in her bed. She was asleep in seconds. 

“So, how is Gotham?” The remaining five people in the house sat around the kitchen table drinking tea.

“Oh, Marinette has made friends with this super cute guy in her math class but refuses to let us hang out with him for more than a little bit at a time.”

“Really?” Their mother raised her eyebrows as she sipped her tea. 

“Oh yeah, she let me go out to lunch with him and one of his older sisters once, but that was a one-time thing.” Kagami nodded. 

“And then one time she let him into the dorm when we weren’t there and I found them sleeping on the floor.” Chloé added.

“Wait, what?” This was news to Kagami.

“Seriously?” Adrien didn’t know whether or not to laugh.

“Yeah. I took a picture, and I had it printed. That’s her present from me, I put it in a frame too.” Sabine laughed. 

“Oh, you are too funny.”

“Oh, look at it.” She pulled out her phone, and opened her photo app. She showed them a picture of a black-haired boy with an arm out laying on the floor, and Marinette with her head on the outstretched arm, holding a book to her chest. 

“Oh that is great.” 

“I certainly thought so.” Chloé was proud of herself for this one.

  
  


Marinette woke up, and grabbed her phone. She had a message from Alya and one from Damian. 

Alya’s read:

‘ _ You back yet? What time are you headed to Alix’s? _ ’ She checked the clock, and sent back, 

‘ _ Home. took a nap. Leaving in like three hours _ .’ And then immediately after, ‘ _ you want me to come get dressed at yours? Or you at mine? _ ’ The she opened Damians message,

‘ _ Are you alive? _ ’ She snorted. That was what he always said when he was asking if she had made it somewhere safe. She sent back a selfie of herself with her clock that she kept screwed to her headboard. Alya messaged her back, 

‘ _ You come here. Your house is solid full rn _ .’

_ ‘It’s solid full all the time, lately… _ ’

‘ _ True. when are you coming over? _ ’ she sighed, and thought it over. 

‘ _ I’ll leave in like half an hour. Maybe sooner. Maybe later. I have a presents I’m bringing.’ _

‘ _ Bring some over, I’ll help. _ ’

She checked her company email. Bidding had closed at midnight, and she had been on the plane, unable to check. 

They had arrived at around six am, having left at eleven at night. She had a terrible time sleeping on the plane, and slept from six to eleven. Alix’s party was at three, giving them plenty of time to hang out as a class and then be able to go home and be with family for dinner. 

She opened it up, and found here three winners were, of course, three people she had never met but were probably very rich. 

She opened to see how much the amount was, and… dropped her phone. Thirty thousand dollars. Thirty. Thousand. Dollars. That wasn’t even what she was paying, that was just to be able to  _ have _ a spot. 

She took a shaky breath, and checked the second and third. The second highest was twenty-five thousand, and the third was twenty-two.

She set her phone down, and pulled her knees up to her chest. She set her head down on her knees. 

“Hey, you're awake! Do you want some- oh no.” Adrien climbed up onto her bed, and sat down on the edge of it. “What happened.”

“Hey, can you pull out your phone calculator for a second?” She picked her head up. 

“Uh, sure?” He didn’t catch on at first. 

“Thirty plus twenty-five plus twenty-two.” She said. 

“Seventy-seven.” He informed her. “What’s this about? What happened?”

“You remember that auction thing you suggested I do?”

“Yeah, I do, but-” He realized. “Oh. Is this…”

“I just made seventy-seven thousand dollars, doing nothing.” She marvelled. “I think I need to do special events more often. This is insane.”

“No kidding.”

She climbed down after him, and dug around for a big tote bag she could use to bring all the presents in. Before she started, however, she sent the winning people their notifications so they could send her the designs they wanted. Then she set to work on the presents. 

She had gotten Alya crocs. Her card said ‘I heard every cool Uni student has to own a pair of these.’

Max got a set of tiny screwdrivers, Kim got a roll of waterproof Kinesiology Tape, Alix some official MDC athletic socks, Chloé and Kagami got to have their presents at home, Adrien got a cute phone case, Sabrina got an adorable thermos with a patterns of kittens on it, Juleka got some headphones with kitty ears on them, Nath was getting some fancy new colored pencils, Marc was getting nice leather fingerless gloves, which were  _ not _ fake leather because she hated fake leather and came from a brand she knew was safe to buy leather products from, Ivan got a little mini recipe book of several things they made together during her mental breakdown hours, and Meyléne got a gift card to a restaurant she loved. 

Nino got a new, sturdier adapter cable he had been grumbling about always having to replace, and Rose. Poor Rose. She was getting a large box full of many tubes of glitter to tease her about dropping her last box. 

She wrapped Alya’s present, as well as Nino’s and Rose’s before just throwing the rest of them in the tote bag with some wrapping paper and heading out the door.

“Hey, where are you going?” Adrien frowned at her as she headed out.

“Don’t worry about it.” She grinned, and made her way to the subway hoping it was warmer than the outside air. 

She knocked on Alya’s door, which was immediately opened by one of the twins. 

“Marinette!” Ella yelled, excited. 

“Hey, kiddo! How’s the big kid school treating you?” She asked, making her way inside. 

“Oh, it’s miserable.” Etta grumbled, pushing her sister away for her turn to give Marinette a hug. She laughed. 

“Miserable? How so?”

“There's extra homework.” Ella stuck her tongue out, disgusted.

“Yeah, it gets like that sometimes.” Marinette nodded. 

“Hey bitch!” Alya yelled out from her room. 

“Yo motherfucker!” She yelled back, and headed in. “Catch.” She tossed her present at her, and Alya set it down to hug her. 

“I missed you!” She grinned at her best friend. 

“Oh you are much nicer than Adrien. He practically attacked me at the airport this morning.”

“Oof.” Alya grinned at her, and they took a seat on her bed, and put the movie How The Grinch Stole Christmas on as Alya grabbed tape to help her start wrapping the paper. When they finished, they just sat on her bed and finished the movie.

“Want to go to the movies on Tuesday?” Marinette asked. 

“Depends, what’s on?”

“Good question.” She pulled her phone out of her pocket, and checked. 

“Captain Marvel, Black Panther, Muppets from Space, Chucky, and some Spanish movie I don’t know.”

“What time is Captain Marvel playing?”

“Ten.” 

“Ok, let's go see that one.”

“Nice.” Marinette booked the tickets, and used her student ID for a discount. 

When the movie finished, the two headed into the kitchen and Alya put on a pot of boiling water to make some boxed mac and cheese.

“You know, for the child of a successful chef, you surely are a terrible cook.” Marinette noted, sitting on Alya’s counter with her phone in her lap. Her oversized Agreste hoodie made her look tiny. It did not help that she was actually tiny. 

“Oh fuck off. I will have you know I make a _ mean _ mac and cheese.” She brandished a wooden spoon at Marinette, who just giggled. She went back to her phone, nervously awaiting what the commissions were going to be. 

“Hey, random question.” She set her phone back down. “Has Adrien ever panic called you at a ridiculous hour of the morning?” Alya frowned at her. 

“Uh, no? Why?” She debated answering. 

“He saw Nathalie.” She confessed. Alya dropped her spoon on the floor, and swore. “You can’t tell him I told you, though!” She regretted saying anything without asking him first. 

“I swear I’m gonna dump with building water on that woman's face.” She grumbled, picking her spoon up off the floor and getting a new spoon. 

“Alya, no.” Marinette sighed. 

“Alya yes.” She shot back. Marinette sighed. 

They ate the macaroni, and when they had cleaned up all of the dishes there was still an hour and a half before they needed to leave. 

“I’m gonna text Alix and see if we can just come over early.” Alya said from the other side of the couch. 

“Lit.” She gave her a thumbs up. 

“She said yes she needs help with her ‘stupid tree’ as she put it.”

“Oh, fun.” She climbed up from where she buried herself in the cushions, and Alya grabbed her coat and her own box of gifts. They headed to the nearest subway station, to head back in the other direction of the bakery. 

“Yo!” Marinette yelled through the front door. She had let herself in.

“Yo!” Alix yelled back, as she struggled with a large pitcher full of something pink. 

“Hey!” Kim appeared behind her, holding a large box full of miscellaneous objects. 

“Kim, what the hell. We’re literally an hour early, how long have you been here?” Alya frowned at him, making her way to the living room to put her gifts under the big tree.

“Two days.” Kim answered, disappearing again into Alix’s strangely huge house. 

“Alix, where’s your dad?” Marinette asked, pulling out the presents and putting them under the tree. 

“Lunch at the Louvre.” She answered, fairly far away. “And my brother is in London for some dumb thing.” 

“He couldn’t be bothered to come home?”

“He’s with his girlfriend's parents.” Her voice suddenly sounded less far away.

“Ah.” Alya nodded. “Big move, spending Christmas with them.”

“Alya, you are literally stuck to Nino like an old piece of gum, you are in no place to talk about big moves.” Alix appeared in her living room.

“Hey. True.” Alya feigned offense. She started helping Alix move things around at her instruction. 

Other kids who had been in their class started to show up, and the pile under the tree grew. 

“Alright, if we’re making this unofficial class reunion thing a tradition, I say we do secret santa next year.” Chloé huffed. 

“I agree, that would make gift exchanging incredibly easier, and far less expensive.” Max pointed out. Marinette couldn't help but notice he seemed to be growing his hair out. She wondered what prompted this decision, he never changed anything about himself unless he thought it would have a better impact on his daily routine. 

“Alright. Next year, we will secret santa.” Alix agreed. “Who wants to host?

“I think we should have a competition to see who gets hosting rights.” Kim grinned. 

“Of course you do.” Sabrina rolled her eyes. 

“No, I think he has a point.” Adrien stood up to get more pink lemonade, “We can make yet another tradition. The tradition of the hosting-right competition.”

“Is this like that Mardi Gras thing they do with the plastic babies in the boot-shaped state, luise something?” Meyléne frowned. 

“Mardi Gras is celebrated in Louisiana.” Max’s coat chirped. Juleka jumped, unaware Markov was even there. 

“Oh, sorry, I forgot to tell you I have Markov with me. Whoops.”

“What things with the plastic babies?” Kagami gave a look of horror at Meyléne.

“They bake a cake and put a plastic baby in it so whoever gets the slice with the baby in it has to buy the next cake.” Sabrina, Chloé, Adrien, and Alya all gave Marinette a look. 

“No, that’s it, I will make you cakes with rice treat monster trucks, and I will make you cakes with fondant asses, but I draw the line at plastic babies.” She shook her head. 

“Awe.” Adrien gave her a playful frown. 

“Suck my ass.” She shot back. She noticed that everyone except Lila was here. She wondered if Lila was ignoring them on purpose, or if she had even been made aware of anything happening at all… 

“So what are we doing, then?” Marc threw back out there. “For this party we seem to be planning a year in advance?”

“I say whoever cleans my house the fastest gets hosting rights.” Alix grumbled. 

“Oh boo.”

“Don’t fucking boo me, Ivan.”

“I’ll boo whoever I want to boo.” 

“Boo my ass.”

“Alright, enough.” Adrien sighed. “We’ll do that weird pickle thing.”

“Weird pickle thing?” Nino frowned. 

“You know, the thing where someone hides a pickle on the tree, and whoever finds the pickle gets good luck for a year? Alix is going to take a pickle, hide it in the house, and then when she comes back on the count of three we run around and go look for it.” He suggested.

“No, wait, I like that.” Marc nodded. 

“I don’t know if I have any pickles, though.” Alix frowned. 

“Well, what do you have?” Rose was lying on the back of a couch, dramatically dangling her arms over the sides. 

“I think I have… I don’t know, a cup of applesauce?” She shrugged. 

“So whoever gets the applesauce, brings it back here, and eats it first gets to host the next party.” Nathaniel recapped. 

“Wait, no, make it two apple sauces. Then it becomes a race to see who can one back here the fastest and eat it.” Kim added. 

“Anyone else want to add a rule?” Alix sighed before heading out to grab two cups of applesauce. 

“If someone is almost back with the applesauce, you  _ can _ tackle them for it. Fighting is completely  _ on _ the table.” Chloé gave an evil smirk. 

“Chloé, that’s a terrible idea.” Rose frowned. “Add it to the list.” Alix disappeared. 

“So, how is everyone?” Rose asked. No one seemed to answer for a few minutes. “Anyone considering dropping out?”

“Ugh, me.” Marc frowned at the floor. “I’m getting a Minor in english, and I hate it. It’s the worst.”

“Juleka, how is business going?” Marinette asked. “I know you wanted that to fall back on if the band or modeling didn’t work out.”

“Not as hard as I thought it would be, honestly.” She shrugged. “I’m doing pretty good.”

“Nice.” They sat in silence for a few minutes, until Alix ran back in, yelling,

“Three two one go!” At a ridiculously fast speed. No one noticed the roll of paper towels in her hand, fully expecting someone to end up with it all over their clothes.

They all scrambled to their feet, and ran in different directions. 

Marinette headed to the farthest end of the house first, and started to make her way back. 

She searched all throughout Alix’s bedroom, and found one. A tiny little plastic cup with a tin lid sitting under her bed.

She snatched it up, and shoved it in her sweatshirt pocket. As she rushed out, she pretended to search through different rooms on her way back.

Until she was grabbed from behind by Adrien.

“I can see it in your pocket, you little shit.” He whispered in her ear, and she tried to wiggle out his hold. 

“You see nothing!” She hissed, and he picked her up off of the floor. “What the hell?” 

“We’re going back to the living room so I can dramatically steal it out of your hands at the last second, and-” She rammed her heel into his shin. “Ow!” He dropped her, and she bolted. 

“Jerk!” She yelled, running as fast as she could. 

“MARINETTE’S GOT ONE!” He yelled, and people ran into the hallways to look for her. She dodged all of their attempts to catch her to steal it, and successfully made it back to the living room. 

She jumped behind a couch, peeling back the lid, and Kim ran in with the other one in his own hand. They peeled back the labels at the same time, and she started to drink it like a smoothie. He followed, and, seeing her about to win, smacked the back of her hand so most of it flew out of the plastic cup and all over her face.

“Ooh, better luck next time Marinette!” Alix handed her a paper towel, and she angrily wiped the sauce off of her face. 

“Fuck. You.” She growled. Kim just winked at her as he set the empty plastic container down on the coffee table. 

“PRESENT TIME PRESENT TIME PRESENT TIME!” Sabrina bounced back in, and gave Alix a hopeful look.

“Yeah, sure, present time.” She shrugged, and Kagami put herself in charge of handing them out, alongside Sabrina and Max.

Marinette got her boxes, and started to open them up. New mechanical pencils from Marc, a sketchbook from Alya, a cute braided bracelet from Sabrina, a cute handmade watch from Max, a package of hair bows from Kim (yes, she still wore her hair in ribbons in Uni, she refused to use anything else), a little scrapbook from Rose, little bits of sewing supplies from Alix and Juleka, a pair of very nice headphones from Nino, a cute drawing of her favorite selfie of her and Nath together from him, and cookies from Ivan and Meyléne. There was a little not attached, ‘ _ we know you literally lived in a bakery, but these ones were made with love.’ _ She smiled, and saved her present from Adrien for last. She opened to find… Gummy rats. 

“Adrien what the hell.” She side-eyed him, and he grinned. 

“Gummy rats!” She thought about it for a second, and realized he was making a Chat pun. 

“Oh you motherfucker.” She smiled at him, and he winked. 

“How is everybody this fine evening?” An older man walked in, and Alix tried not to cringe. 

“Great, Mr. Kubdel!” Alya waved. “How was your work thing?”

“Oh it was alright, a few people-” She drifted her attention back to her gummy rats. Cat’s brought dead rats to people they loved. This was a very cute gift. 

“Hey, Nino, how come you gave Marinette an awesome expensive gift and the rest of us something significantly less expensive?” Chloé play-frowned. 

“Because Marinette is the only one of you that deserves it.” He threw back, “Plus it was from a promo package, it was actually free.”

“Oh fuck you, Nino.” Marinette crumpled up a ball of tissue paper, and threw it at him. Suddenly, all hell broke loose.

The next day, Christmas, went as most Christmas’s go. They got up, had a nice breakfast together, and opened some presents from and for each other. 

“Hey.” Chloé walked into her room while Adrien was in the shower and she was alone. “I got one more gift for you.”

“What?” She sat up in her bed, and took the package. She unwrapped it, and found a picture of her and Damian inside.

“Cute, isn’t it?” She smirked. 

“Chloé, what the hell?” She sighed, trying to decide if she liked it or not. As she was looking at it, she realized she had no pictures of her and Damian on her phone. She needed to make a New Years resolution of taking more selfies with him. This was one she intended to keep. 

Damian was sitting on his bed playing a game on his Nintendo Switch when his phone went off. It was from Marinette, so he dove to answer it. 

‘ _ Can you fucking belive this bitch? _ ’ She said. He frowned, but it eventually made sense when the picture it was attached to finally loaded. He stared at the picture of a framed photo of the two of them, asleep on the floor. She was cuddling a book like it was a teddy bear, and they were both facing up towards the ceiling. 

‘ _ I can. We look cute af _ .’ He responded, knowing full well this was going to piss her off. 

‘ _ Oh no. Don’t encourage her. She will make it a challenge to take the most ridiculous picture of us from now on out.’ _

‘ _ What? I think that would be kinda cute.’ _

‘ _ You are the worst. _ ’ She sent a few frowning emojis, and he stopped the teasing.

“Hey. Demon Spawn. Gift for you.” Dick threw a lumpy package at him, and opened it. Inside was a black beanie with a big green logo on the front. He smiled, and headed over to a mirror to try it on when he noticed a card fall out.

_ ‘I wanted it to be yellow, but I was all out of yellow thread. Maybe the green will match your eyes as well I had hoped yellow would. I’m sure you'll look fabulous either way. Love, Marinette. _ ’ He smiled, and put the index card in his wallet before putting the hat on.

He pushed all of his hair back under it, and pulled it down before deciding to pull out a small strand of hair to stick out the front. That looked much better. 

He sat down in the corner of his room, and took a selfie with his knees pulled up to his chest, his cheeks puffed out, and his eyes looking up at the ceiling even with his head straight so you could only see mostly just the whites of his eyes. 

He uploaded the picture to snapchat with the caption, 

**The_Best_Wayne** _Super special thanks to_ ** _@OfficialMDC_** _for this one of a kind design! So glad I made that stupid bet with you!_

A few moments later, he got a notification she had put his post on her story, as well as commented on it:

**OfficialMDC** _Way to make it sound like you didn’t so drastically lose to me, loser ;) I’ll play you again any time, since I kicked your ass so easily. Also, if anyone wants to know, it was a Christmas present. He didn’t win SHIT_. 

**The_Best_Wayne @OfficialMDC** _oof the callout_. 

He smiled at his phone, taking a screenshot of the whole thing, and went back to his game with his new hat. He knew his gift for her was still in the process of being made.

  
  



End file.
